RPGCOM :: January 2010

Different Strokes
‘Capturing that one moment is about being ready all the time’

Sumantra Banerjee is someone who loves wearing different hats. He is sector head for both power and retail and also the managing director of RPG Group’s power major CESC Ltd. But aside of the corporate roles, he is also an ace photographer, and is now exploring the new genre of photo on canvas. In this interview, Banerjee talks to RPGCom about his passion and how he is nurturing it.

When did you realize you had this talent for photography? How did you then nurture it?
Photography has been of interest to me for many years now. It is really in the last 5 years or so that I have been doing a lot of reading and also upgrading my equipment to raise it to the next level.

You have a tremendously busy schedule, being sector head for two sectors of the Group. How do you manage to give time to this hobby of yours?
My photographs cover 5 basic genres :
(i) Landscape
(ii) Flowers
(iii) Birds
(iv) Cityscapes
(v) Wildlife
Almost all the pictures are taken when I have been on leave. Locations that I go to for vacations are usually off the beaten track and cover destinations ranging from North Pole to Alaska to Ladakh to Africa. It is in places like this that you find nature’s beauty at its best.

Photography is all about capturing that one critical moment which makes for a great photograph. How do you know when the moment is upon you?
Capturing that one critical moment is about being ready all the time. You have to anticipate the shot and set the camera settings accordingly (keeping in view factors such as level of light, anticipate speed of motion of the subject, depth of field that you would require in the picture etc.). When that moment comes, it is almost a reflex action.

One of my favourite shots is of a seagull skimming the water at high speed in the North Pole and I could freeze the motion of the bird as well as the water splash from its feet because I anticipated the shot and had adjusted the camera settings accordingly.

You have got into photo on canvas as an art form. How is it being received in general, and what is the future for this genre?
The idea of taking it to canvas was to find a middle ground between photographic paper prints and expensive paintings. The thought came about 6 months ago when a friend suggested “Why don’t you look at canvas – some of your landscapes look like paintings”. The Project was developed in partnership with HP and Nikon who were my Partners in the Exhibition and are also my Partners on the website dreamoncanvas.com.

Dreamoncanvas.com, apart from offering pictures on canvas from around the globe, also allows a person to print his/her own pictures on canvas from the comfort of their home. The same HP technology back-end used for printing my pictures will now be available to anyone who wishes to take their own pictures to canvas.

Your exhibition in Kolkata has been well received. Where are you headed next?
The Kolkata Exhibition was successful and we had a fully sold out position. The response of the visitor to photographs on canvas was extremely encouraging. The Exhibition sales proceeds were for charity and intended for Future Hope, a Kolkata based institution for orphaned and abandoned children.

We substantially exceeded our fund raising target for
Future Hope and the Sumantra Banerjee Foundation is now also making substantial contributions to the Cerebral Palsy Institute, Bharat Sevashram Sangha and Ramkrishna Mission.

I do not have the time to do more than 1 (maximum 2) Exhibitions a year for charity. The next one will possibly be some time in the third or fourth quarter of the next financial year in Delhi/ Gurgaon. I haven’t even started applying my mind to it yet.

How much do you expect to contribute to charity from the Kolkata Exhibition that you held recently?
The accounts for the Kolkata Exhibition are still to be drawn up but it will definitely be double digit in Rs. lakhs