A lone silhouette sleeps under the glare of a single streetlight, on a nameless city pavement. Oblivious to the dirt and squalor around, a little boy beams at a distant onlooker, with a trick in his eyes. In other frames, a father and daughter sleep hugging each other, a woman is reflected in her bike’s rear-view mirror, and a little girl struggles to tie her shoe laces. These are some of the works of student photographers, put on display at the Express Institute of Media Studies (EXIMS) in Express Building on Monday. Eighteen students had enrolled for the 10-week course, spending weekends honing their photography skills, under the guidance of the newspaper’s photojournalists. Elizabeth Varkey, a student at Lady Shri Ram College, decided to enrol for the course because of an ‘inclination towards photography. “Till two and half months ago, I didn’t even have a camera. Now, people are appreciating the pictures I have clicked. I couldn’t have asked for a better learning experience,” she says. Varkey is one of the five students who will now get an opportunity to work as an intern with The Indian Express. Anjavee Tarannum, Gurjanit Pannu, Ajay Saini, and Dipantar Bora are the other four students selected for the internship. Shekhar Gupta, editor-in chief of The Indian Express, presented the certificates to the students. “Today, anyone who carries a camera considers himself a photographer. But, photography is a skill that has to be learnt. It’s tough to be a still photographer, when everything is out there on video. The challenge of clicking a good photo is to find the one microsecond that’s the right moment,” he said.
