We Need To Talk: 2009

The master gave a talk in Kuala Lumpur and i had the chance to meet him and hear his experiences directly from him . An evening well spent .

Location: Kuala Lumpur

Note : In case the pics are not visible here all the pics can be viewed here http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=85783&id=524303960&l=2912e4ca5c

Steve McCurry signs and tells me that he also used Nikon .

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_McCurry
http://www.stevemccurry.com/

Waiting in anticipation . I assumed that Malaysians true to the spirit will follow the MST , but to my horror i saw people have jammed in and were waiting from 2 hours before the event . Wonders never cease

He arrives . a very unassuming guy and very simple speaker.

He starts off with India and Holi . His pics from his last 30 years in this business

states that the tradition of wearing a Turban is losing relevance due to the westernisation and thats pretty saddening.

this classic and famous round of pics from Rajasthan , according to him were taken by chance while he was driving around !

One guys asks whether he uses any filters and enhancements . Steve says that all these pics were taken without any filters, flashes and no postproduction almost 25 years ago !

One of his various covers of Nat Geo. He quips that the guys is smiling cuz he was actually embarrassed as people around were telling him that he is being clicked

Thats Steve during an indian monsoon

A different view of Taj .

he says that he went back to the Taj later on to try to replicate this shot with the Taj in the back ground but couldnt as the rail tracks had been removed.

one guy asks how much of digital photography Steve does. He says that out of all the pics he is showing today only 10% are digital rest are all analogue .

Nat geo got lot of comments asking why the sunlight appeared to come from different directions and turned almost into a controversy. Steve says this was because he had used a wide angle lens and it distorted the pic.

This guy put on new clothes for the pic and it seems, borrowed his fathers AK 47 for this !!

Another pic which he says was quite by chance ;)

Steve doesnt usually photograph Celebrities , but made an exception for her . HE was very impressed by Aung San Suu Kyi

Cambodia - Angkor wat . He points out that he likes how the figures of the 3 monks on the right reflect the three towers of the Angkor wat . Loved it ;)

He says it took him quite a while to understand some cultural extremes , but once you understand the spirit and the motivation behind any gruesome practice you will GET it.

One guy asks whether he get model releases for his pictures. And he firmly says No , it is not required for editorial .

Steve plans to make a book on people sleeping across the world . This particular image was striking to me.

Another of his Nat Geo covers.

Steve says that people rarely are smiling in his pictures . In this pic the Mother and daughter had the same front tooth missing . To capture that , he made them laugh till they realised what he was upto ;)

he says Afghan women have the best facial features in the world .

Sharbat Gul ! all 13 year old at the afghan camp in 1984

He points out that the scar on her nose which was crucial in finding her 17 years later.

When he was on the mission to search for her , lots of women claimed to be Gula , and this was one of them. He says that one look at the eyes and you could easily make out that she wasnt the one.

The same girl who claimed to be Gula

Around that time a man came to meet the Nat geo team claiming to he the afghan Girl's brother . Steve says that when he looked at his eyes his heart almost skipped a beat and he knew they were close.

Finally she reveals herself in 2002 after more than 17 years

The team does all kinds of retina scanning and facial features to determine that she is the one.

He points out to the nose scar.

Sharbat Gula's Husband ,

Her husband says that he marriage to him was the her happiest moment till now . !!! steve didnt get it and neither did i . But he guesses that her life in the last 17 years has been pretty tough .

He quips that probably now they are in a condo in LA ;) due to the remuneration that they got

The picture that made the cover as "FOUND" He says that while photographing this , he ran out of film and he went in to change and she assumed that it is done and they left . Luckily he manged to get enough for the article and a cover shot.

2002 cover

Thats sheikh Abu pasha !! ;) Steve cracks at his own joke .

The Fake IPL Player has been one of the most interesting things to happen in this IPL2.0 and has surely generated a lot of curiosity and controversy alike.

It doesn't take a scientist to see that something is wrong with the KKR camp and now that they would be coming back very soon doesn't help their cause .

But another blasphemous thing is noticed. The Brand name of KKR .

Just check out these two pics from the screen grabs taken just now 11th May 2009. The first one from the IPL home page and the second one from the KKR website

You notice anything different ??

The word KOLKATA doesn't feature in the KKR's logo on it own home page !!!! weird very very weird .

What the hell is wrong with the marketing team ? This leads to so many questions and most of them would lead to a controversy . I tried googling for any news on this but just found a few snippets here and there , not done at all.

I am quite surprised that Kolkattans have not yet raised a hue and cry over this ! There should have already been a bloggerstorm on this

all the other teams proudly sport the names of their cities and states on their logos . If the brand names of the teams are not sacrosanct then for a more international feel we should just stick to the second names of the teams like Daredevils , Royals etc etc why go through this whole charade of having a regional Indian state/city name to ride on a pseudo euphoria of regionalism ??!!!

Looking for answers !

Cheers

P.S MY Apologies - this news HAS been posted earlier in April by Business Standard and also blogs like strat.in

But the IPL website is still carrying the old logo ! it surely looks too damn messed up to be true