The Danishes come to judgement

Bollywood filmmaker Habib Faisal used to be a cameraman for NDTV when he scaled Kargil during the 1999 war Once with a slightly screechy emotion laden reporteranchor the second time with a calmer one possessing fairer more objective voiceWhile Faisal was once telling me about how the nature of the same reportingsetting changes given the personality of the reporter it occurred to me that he had actually reported that war risking his life twice Everyone only knew the hugely fetedfamous faces before his camera in Indiarsquos first televised war Even I wouldnrsquot have known if Faisal hadnrsquot made popular movies Ishaqzaade Do Dooni Chaar etcWhich is as it should be News reporting obviously involves making the subject the only storymdashrather than the one telling it This is still true for printtextbased journalists Truer still for reporters with newswire services across the globemdashoften detailing oppression against the weakpowerlessmdashas is their job Even their bylines or authorrsquos names rarely if ever appear along with published accounts in web or printSometimes pictures shot by photojournalists tell a better story Words fall short Itrsquos immaterial at least to nonpeers who shot them Few consumers might care unless the image borders on art and they often doDanish SiddiquiIronic then that the first time Irsquove noticed lay readers genuinely interested in a photojournalist or his works belonged to a news agency Reuters Chiefly because the public realised an entire set of frighteningly fresh defining imagesmdashfrom antiCAA protests Delhi riots to the second wave of COVID19mdashwere from the same chroniclerWith his tragic death on July 16 2021 at work in Kandahar provincemdashcovering clashes between Taliban and Afghan Special ForcesmdashDanish Siddiqui left a rare flashlight pointed at his own unsung profession for fellow Indians to pay their long overdue respects Siddiqui was 38 from Delhi having spent much time as a journalist based in MumbaiNaturally the number of mutual friends I learnt about only after Sidiquirsquos death made me wonder why wersquod never met Couldrsquove bumped into each other at The Press Clubmdashthat cheap watering hole where journalists go to forcibly drown their day because tomorrow is another Itrsquos the place that arguably Indian mediarsquos lowestpaid professionals can suitably afford drinksmdashmaking one wonder why they even do what they do for a livingThey do I suspect to remain the most interesting person in any roommdashto always have a story to tell The test is if itrsquos not exciting enough for a bar it has no business getting published for millions outside On rare occasion the story might be too interesting to be published at allmdashbut thatrsquos another matter and even betterThe story behind a picture proverbially worth a thousand words often remains untold Theyrsquore still equally interestingmdashsometimes even salacious including that apocryphal one about a childrsquos corpse dug out of a grave for the photo that immortalised the Bhopal Gas TragedyThe only time Irsquove seen a brawl break out at Press Club in Mumbai was between hammered photojournalists in my experience the touchiest lot Nothing serious canrsquot recall details but do remember discussing why a life dedicated to simply capturing calamities that often reveal the worst of humanity should take a daily tollThere is no lsquowork from homersquo for a photojournalistmdashno sources you can call to pad up a copy or WhatsApptextemails to land facts in place Sure the camera is like opinion on social mediamdasheverybody has one How do you tell the poseur from the professional Gauging perspectiveThe visual is anyway the nakedest mediummdashmaking the distinction implicitly apparent between empathy and porn erotica and sleaze voyeur and spectator Truth like beauty lies in the eyes of the lens holder And this is usually judged by thoughts the images inspire Glad that regular readers could appreciatespot that crucial difference in Siddiquirsquos best worksThat hersquod won Pulitzer a richly deserved honour covering the Rohingya refugee crisis has still more to do with Reuters the UK based news agency There are several Pulitzer worthy Indian photojournalistsmdashsome of them Irsquove been proud to call my colleagues The prize is open for publication in American news outlets alone and for US citizens in the case of drama letters and musicThe greatestenduring Indian tribute to photojournalists has still come only from cultpopular cinemamdashthe film Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro 1983 centred on scribes with a cameramdashthe loveable fools Sudhir Ravi Baswani and Vinod Naseer They land an expose The images in their hands can rock the local government The seductive editor of Khabardar magazine strikes a private deal with powers that bemdashwho couldnrsquot be bothered with these powerless photojournos anyway Surely thatrsquos par for the course in global news media Herersquos what may have changed since 1983 That photograph or video if accurateauthentic might pass hands and still come out into the world Fair you donrsquot land an explosive exposeacute every now and then But a powerful image telling an unmanipulatedcomplete story by a dogged photojournalist equally blessed by gods of nonfiction remains permanently imprinted in historymdashorganically spreading online in the present You canrsquot simply spinerase that This is why governments especially dictatorships realpotential will more so fear brave Danishes foreverMayank Shekhar attempts to make sense of mass culture He tweets mayankw14Send your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper