It is very rewarding

Vimal Chander Joshi interviews Kushal Gangopadhyay, freelance travel photographer.

You have been pursuing your passion of travel photography for the last 30 years. What kind of changes have you witnessed?

Before you go anywhere, you must do some research on the area, geography, its people and culture. Earlier, I used to frequent libraries for information, but now we can get everything we want from the Internet. You can even contribute your pictures to international journals through the web medium. Things have become quite simpler these days.

Do you think the profession pays a lot of money?

It depends on where you contribute. In case of domestic magazines, money is very low — sometimes as little as Rs 900 for a picture, while the international publications pay much more. To survive on travel photography, you must travel very frequently so as to be able to contribute to the popular magazines on a regular basis. You can’t be an amateur and contribute to magazines like National Geographic. It involves complete dedication, which calls for full-time attention.

Is it a must for people to do a course in photography or should one intern with an established photographer?

One should learn from the Internet or senior photographers. I don’t have a high opinion of institutes that teach you photography — these are just money minting machineries.

Should youngsters take up travel photography as a full time career option?

What I can say is that the profession is very rewarding. You meet new people, see new places. You will have nice experiences: like villagers serving you tea. These experiences are very touching.

Author: HT

Date: 17th March, 2010

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