Veteran Indian photojournalist votes in Anadolu’s photo contest

By Ahmad Adil

NEW DELHI (AA) - Photography is the “soul and the heart” of journalism, said a veteran Indian photojournalist who voted in Anadolu’s Photos of the Year contest.

Photojournalists across the globe are playing a “crucial role while capturing the stories, for which they have even sacrificed their lives,” T. Narayan told Anadolu.

Narayan participated in Anadolu’s international photo contest Friday at his home in New Delhi.

In the Sports category, Narayan gave a thumbs up to "The Falling" where Swedish athlete Marcus Nilsson competes in the men`s high jump at the 2023 European Indoor Athletics Championships at the Atakoy Arena in Istanbul.

“Photojournalism in the present scenario is one of the most dangerous professions around the world. The world is at war everywhere. In this (scenario), covering it (war) is always the photojournalist who produces the images and sacrifices his life,” said Narayan, whose career spans more than 35 years, working with India’s leading dailies, magazines as well as international agencies.

The awards will be held for the 10th time by Türkiye’s international news service.

In the Environment category, Narayan voted for "Among the trash," which shows a woman collecting items that are intact among waste material to sell in Dandora -- Nairobi’s main dump site in Kenya.

Photojournalism is “playing a major role,” especially in conflicts like Israel-Palestine or the Russia-Ukraine war, said Narayan.

“Visuals are so striking that sometimes television channels avoid showing this kind of because emotionally it touches the human heart so much and it puts off people so much that they avoid showing these kinds of images,” he said. “A good picture tells a thousand words.”

Narayan, however, said those covering conflicts should be careful.

“They should be aware of their surroundings and not take unnecessary risks to their life,” he said.

Asked about the importance of photojournalism, in scribing history, he said: “It plays an extraordinary role.”

“Our forefathers, our grandfathers -- you go back 100 years, nobody would have experienced situations which arose because of COVID-19. Nobody would have imagined empty roads, people not moving, people not getting out of their houses etc. It was such a scenario that historically, it was so important to document that you need to tell what you know to coming generations, maybe 100 years (later), they see what had actually happened, what was COVID-19 all about,” he said.

While discussing how photojournalists documented struggles during the coronavirus era, Narayan picked "Hope and fear" in the News category which shows coast guard teams affiliated with the Tunisian National Guard capturing dozens of irregular immigrants trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea illegally to Europe in August.

“This is where photojournalism plays such an important role in documenting history. Some situations only pictures can tell the story. So historically photojournalism is all about documenting. the history, the culture, etc,” said the photojournalist.

Voting for the contest comes as South Africa is using photo evidence captured by Anadolu to show that Israel committed war crimes in its onslaught on the Gaza Strip as it brings its genocide case against Tel Aviv to the International Court of Justice.

The case is set to be heard next week.

Urging newcomers to “think out of the box,” Narayan said: “There are plenty of photojournalists, who are around looking for beautiful creative stories, and new photojournalists coming into the field should be well educated and well aware of the subject they cover.”

The newcomers “should be well aware of the people and the culture and they should be well read about the situation while getting into an assignment,” he said.

“At the same time, newcomers cannot take things for granted … they have to be very multitasking unlike earlier times,” added Narayan.