Want to be a part of it? M.I.L.K. ....

Yesterday, while reading on the internet, I read about a contest that would excite many people who often wish to capture the best moments of life and otherwise in their lenses.

The contest titled M.I.L.K.(Moments of Intimacy, Laughter and Kinship) is open to any photographer and that’s the best part of it.

To give a small background about this contest, it goes like this. In 1999, British publisher Hodder Headline (now Hachette Livre) held a global photographic competition called M.I.L.K., inspired by the 1950s landmark photographic exhibition, 'The Family of Man'. The main motive behind this event was to offer an open platform for photographers and search for unique and geographically diverse images on the themes of friendship, family and love.

The results were praise worthy as it turned out to be not only one of the richest photographic collections in history, but also one of the most significant, drawing participation from 17,000 professional and amateur photographers in 164 countries. In total over 40,000 images were received by M.I.L.K., including at least four Pulitzer Prize winners. The 300 winning images were chosen by the Chief Judge, Magnum photographer Elliott Erwitt, and were the basis for three books entitled Family, Friendship and Love and an international touring exhibition launched at New York's Grand Central Terminal in 2001.

To celebrate the 10th anniversary of the original M.I.L.K. competition, M.I.L.K. Licensing (now a subsidiary of PQ Blackwell), again in association with Elliott Erwitt, is conducting a new competition, this year. It is based on the on the themes of friends, families, lovers and laughter to create a new collection of 150 images from across the world.

The photographers would be judged on the basis of these simple requirements.

• The Images that celebrate friendship, family and love.
• Images that tell stories and convey real emotion.
• Images that evoke a humorous response.
• Technical quality.

The contest is open till the 31st Dec'08. Ah ha that's a long way to go. And with the season of festivities and togetherness just starting, think Dusshera, think Diwali, think Thanksgiving, think Christmas, the canvas is just open to paint each one's own composition on the themes that celebrate friendship, family and love.

The contest offers $125,000 as prize money, with the winner getting $50,000 as cash prize. In the end the top 150 pictures would be included in the coming up publication of 'Fresh M.I.L.K.: Friends, Families, Lovers & Laugher', which is scheduled to be printed in autumn 2009. All featured photographers will retain copyright on their images in exchange for granting M.I.L.K. a non-exclusive license.

For more information, regarding how/where to submit the images online, FAQs and other details check the site here.



Does this pic, celebrate friendship, family and love? You decide. But let me try out some other compositions using my frames for this contest and wish you do too. All the best.

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(This pic was taken when the mother had left the puppies for a while in search of some food and I made sure to click this without disturbing their natural moods.)

Get a life...

When I saw the book, 'Get a Life' at a bookstore, the name itself admonished me, whether to buy a copy, because the title sounded like one of the regular self help books. But then when my eyes read the author as Nadine Gordimer, I thought let me give it a try. This was my first read of any work by Nadine Gordimer. I liked the book because contemporary issues formed the framework of the plot, the author modishly jogged towards a wavering climax. No answers are provided and I felt the author has been seeking different interpretations to the various webs we encounter in our lives. In short a provocative book throwing questions at each layer.

The central character, Paul is the child of well-to-do white South Africans, who is forced into a temporary state of in-action and isolation as he is diagnosed of suffering from thyroid cancer. The medical treatment that he undergoes leaves him radioactive, thus being a source of danger to others for some weeks. Sensing the harmful effects of the radioactive radiations, he leaves his wife and only child to return to his childhood family home. His parents, both of whom are nearing retirement, along with a care taker are more than happy to care for their child who is now a 35 year old man. Even though 35, so what. For any parents, their child is always a child, and age is just a number.

This is a novel of inner lives, described emotions not conveyed ones, about human relationships, etc. It's an intricate matrix in which each of the characters is interacting with one's own self.

Paul, an ecologist is fighting for environmental concerns to save the world on one side. On the other side of the fence is Berenice, his wife who works in an advertising agency that facilitates few business firms’ colossal plans for development in the form of constructing highways and resorts, destroying her husband’s beloved wilderness. At a personal level, they share a perfect relationship, make love, have a kid, go out for dinners, and manage the responsibilities at home well but there is contradiction between the values of their work.

How do they manage this?

Paul's mother, Lyndsay, is also a successful professional in the field of law and justice. As a mother, she leaves no stone un-turned when it comes to taking care of her son who has acquired the status of a leper. As the plot develops, she unfolds her past of her heydays, about 15 years ago. A time when she had a four-year affair with a fellow lawyer out of mere desire for gratification. A gross mistake, a lie, and the irreparable damage, are today dark patches of the past for Lyndsay. But some clouds are heavy and don’t get carried away whatsoever. The end result, guilt suffocates Lyndsay.

As the story gains momentum, there is an air of positivity. Paul recovers fast from the radioactive treatment and by the time he is fully cured, both families have changed. Later his parents go to Mexico to fulfill the archaeological vocation Adrian, Paul's dad had sacrificed to support his family. The outcome of this trip is the final surprise in this highly unusual exploration of passionate individual existences.

I found that Gordimer's style is to use less but powerful words. But few sentences were too elliptical and brumous for me to comprehend. Either that's the author bizarre way of writing or my pea sized head didn’t get those Einsteinish format of sentence construction.

Parents are responsible for bringing into the world their progeniture whether deliberately or carelessly and theirs is an unwritten covenant that the life of the child, and by descent the child's child, is to be valued above that of the original progenitors.

But then there are pages, where one would think twice why the author wrote it as fluid prose, though it tastes as good as poetry.

'Where the company of jacaranda fronds finger the same breeze that brushed the boy's soft cheek'.

A slim volume, but the author's literary epithelial ducts convey many things which people won’t like to hear or things people like to share but somehow keep those suppressed.

Hey 'Get a Life'. Nah nah am not giving gyan, here just saying, read the book if that strikes your interest.

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Each Face has a story...

In my occasional travels to the hinterland, I have noticed that the many of these places differ radically from each other but most seem to offer something new to learn and taste some new colors. Through my lens, I tried to capture few of these effective representatives of raw beauty of that society.

In most cases here, the simplicity of the subject is directly proportional to the sophistication of the output that one gets from the click. In one of my posts, temporal had left a comment:

would love to see "portraits"

without flash, of course...in natural light and shades the faces tell stories that words fail to capture (mostly)

I fully agree to each and every word in that statement by temporal, that the cloud of raw emotions do convey a story that words fail to capture.

The facial gesture reminds me that nothing is concealed.



Some eloquent silences but even this silence offers soothing words of warmness.



His face is a palette of light, a landscape that offers one to see the geometry of everyday life in the barest form.



The inelastic and expressive wrinkles echoed and re-echoed, a motley of emotions. Like in this case, it sends a mixed message, stewing in silence.



He seems blate, almost shy. His expressions evoke an intimate, possibly wordless, dialogue.



He is looking right into my camera, his turbaned head tilted a bit, but his eyes and the white beard catch the light and lens just so, revealing something of a soulful vulnerability and thoughtfulness. An obvious mix of tension and diffused graceful touch.



Just as each wrinkle of an old moccasin reveals a story about the foot that wore it, this grandma like figure's smiley face with the stark features convey a fascinating wordless tale.



He comes close in this picture to perceive, what is behind the mask of the face, that spark and glow of life? I feel its satisfaction and the maturity that flows fluidly back and forth.



Lost in thoughts, there is a kind of loneliness, a sadness in his eyes as the trails of smoke from his beedi, perfects his mood.


Talking to these people, thorough the lens is also like working to untangle fragments of personalities. Waiting lounges in airports, a gathering near a chai shop, the city markets, etc always tease with the promise of a story the viewer of these urges to be told. The frames always offer something new and entice one to come back again.

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Rajni, Rajni, Rajni...

I guess, by now everyone would have heard about Rajni's blockbuster Sivaji:The Boss and the kind of hysteria it created among the fans. I even read in the newspapers that some die-hard enthusiasts actually flew from Chennai to New Delhi just because all the tickets were sold out. That's the power and the trademark of this man, Rajni, the second highest paid actor in Asia after Jackie Chan and highest in India.

His films, which are famous for their tastelessly showy and flashy costumes, humorous locutions, jhakas on the fly rustic punch lines and best are his hallmark tricks, that would even put the Hollywood sci-fi flick directors to shame. And not to mention his stunts, that defy the laws of Physics out rightly. A few of those out of the world mind-boggling tricks, which are big money grossers, are here. But whatever be the case, this chap rules the emotions of the people and is given the stature of a demi-god. Put in a direct way, it is best to freeze your incredulity in the grotesque and ludicrously odd actions and simply surrender to the amusement of the scenes.

Hey its not that his stunts are goosy, trite characterizations, he applies the laws in a way that we would not have thought about. If you don't believe me, just check the snapshot below for an abstract application of the famous Pythagoras Theorem.


I have not seen many of his movies but what I hear is that in Rajni's movies, reason sleeps. So what? It's the same in many of the Hollywood and Bollywood movies too. That they never get the science right is almost beside the point, movies are a mode of entertainment and art and if this medium succeeds by tapping the power of transcend to explore the relationship between human beings and technology and provides amusement to the target audience, that's perfectly Ok. Methinks so.

Rajni is an accomplished craftsman and what most distinguishes him from his contemporaries is his imagination, his vision to fuse all the disparate elements of filmmaking into whole new worlds and most importantly his ability to understand his target audience and touch their hearts.

If you do not believe me, check this.


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The 2007 Nobel Prize for Literature ...

The 2007 Nobel Prize for literature has gone to the British author Doris. Lessing is the 11th woman to win literature's most prestigious prize in its 106-year history. She is best known for her 1962 postmodern feminist masterpiece, 'The Golden Notebook'.

What more could a literary genius ask as a birthday gift. Lessing now just short of 11 days to touch the milestone of her 88th birthday, is the oldest person to have been awarded the prize, a title previously held by Theodor Mommsen, who was 85 when he won the award in 1902. Also if you see the trend, Lessing's award makes this the second time in three years that the award has gone to a British author, the other being Harold Pinter's in 2005. Last year, it was awarded to the Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk.

Guess this grand old lady of literature, herself was a bit surprised when she learnt about the laurel that was conferred on her.

Ms. Lessing learned of the news from a group of reporters camped on her doorstep as she returned from a visit to the hospital with her son. "I was a bit surprised because I had forgotten about it actually," she said. "My name has been on the short list for such a long time."

As the persistent sound of her phone ringing came from inside the house, Ms. Lessing said that on second thought, she was not as surprised "because this has been going on for something like 40 years," referring to the number of times she has been mentioned as a likely honoree. "Either they were going to give it to me sometime before I popped off or not at all."

After a few moments, Ms. Lessing, who is stout, sharp and a bit hard of hearing, excused herself to go inside. "Now I’m going to go in to answer my telephone," she said. "I swear I’m going upstairs to find some suitable sentences, which I will be using from now on."

Source: New York Times

Lessing’s life has been a kaleidoscope. Born on 22 October 1919 to British parents in Kermanshah in Persia (now Bakhtaran in Iran). Her father, Alfred Cook Taylor, was a bank official and her mother, Emily Maude Taylor, had been a nurse. In the course of her journey from childhood till date she has moved from Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) to Salisbury, and many places in between before settling in London. She has an interesting personality having dabbled with different firmaments. Someone who ended her formal schooling at the age of 14 and in the following years she worked as a young nanny, telephone operator, office worker, stenographer and journalist. Someone who had several short stories published.

Just see the orbits of life, she has touched and so its not surprising to learn the theme of relations between men and women which form the lifeline of the dozens of novels, short stories, and essays that she has scripted. Now on the verge of touching 88, she approximately belongs to same generation of maestro as filmmakers Ingmar Bergman and Michelangelo Antonioni, both died a couple of months back. These are a bunch of people who are a league apart and are institutions in their own way. Like the masters of camera and light who explored social, psychological, and sexual malaise in their motion pictures, this lady used her quill to explore those themes and subjects.

Happy Birthday Lessing and you deserved the Nobel Prize.

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