Thank you Pooja, for agreeing to share your experience of producing a photo essay from your field work and research. To start, could you please tell us when you decided that you wanted to create this photo essay? We were studying the real estate development in the area and the impact of the metro on it. We had done several rounds of interview with real estate developers in the area, and therefore, we had visited the site quite a few times. We were shocked that the apartments were so expensive despite the bad infrastructure, so whenever we found something visually interesting, we took photos. For instance, the photo from inside the Tech Park. When we entered the Tech Park, we were taken aback by the starkly different world, which was very fancy and very European looking compared to the outside. Since all of this was so visually striking and dramatic, instead of a journal article or a report, we thought we could create a photo essay. Once you were on the field and saw what it was like, you realized that this could be a visual story, what did you do next? We spoke to the void Lab at IHS about this photo essay, and they sent as a list of questions to consider. These questions helped us get clarity about what we wanted to see. Once we knew the central theme of the story, and what we wanted to tell, we came up with a narrative. We wrote down our observations and structured them into points within this narrative. Then we went through the photos we had clicked, and inserted the photos which spoke to each point that we were making. When we put these things together, we realized that for some of the points we had, we didn't have photos, or some of the photos we had were not working. These are pictures we had taken as documentation, so it wasn't really showing what we wanted to tell in this particular essay. Some of the days we went to the field were very cloudy without much sunlight, so these images were just bad. We made the store of these photos and went back to the field to get them clicked again. If you're there for long enough at a site, you will see what you need, because it's a pattern. The familiarity helped because we knew where we could get the most telling shots from. For example, the spot from where we could get both the drainage and the building. There were some things we wanted to do, but it was not visible. For instance, we wanted to get a picture from the top of a building which would give us a better view of the disparity in the area, but they are all private buildings and access is difficult to get, so we did not pursue it further. Access can often play a critical role, but that's great that you found a way around it. What were some of the other challenges you run into? The non-mobile things were the easier ones to shoot, like the image with the solid waste. It was there and we took the picture of it on one of our earlier trips. Wherever we felt the need to get better shots of these non-mobile things, it was pretty much to take the same photo, but with a better camera on a brighter day. The image of the road that was dug up, we couldn't re-shoot because the second time we went there, it had already been filled up. The water tanker was difficult to take because it is a moving object. You have to wait to spot one and take the picture whenever it comes. Those were the photos we took in the second round, basically which involved moving subjects. We wanted to also convey how dusty the area is, but how do you show dust. We were in that intersection and we waited and hoped some big truck would pass and startup the dirt so that we could take the photo. We eventually also got the image of the dust settled on the leaves, and we thought that communicated the point that we were trying to make. You need to go into the field knowing the image you want, otherwise it will get difficult, which is why it helps to visit the site multiple times and build familiarity. After the field work, one challenge we had was to let go of some good photos which were redundant or which did not fit the narrative. Basically, we had to make a choice between a good aesthetically appealing photo and a relevant photo. Those are very useful insights, and despite all the preparation, one might always have to deal with unexpected circumstances. In terms of output, had you thought about where you were planning to publish the piece? We knew it was going to be a photo essay, we looked online and listed our platforms that published photo narratives. Some of these platforms were more academic, some were more journalistic, some catered to a global audience, some were to a local audience. We finally chose this particular platform as it was Pan-Indian, and we thought that the reader base would be interested in this particular story that we were trying to tell. Thanks a lot Pooja, this conversation has been very useful.
