‘He had a gift. People eased up,and opened their souls’

I was 19 and in the second year of a chemical engineering programme. A friend of mine told me that 95 per cent of people go to work every day,only five per cent do what they enjoy. I didn’t know what I ­enjoyed,but I did know that I hated what I was studying. Then,I realised that ­photography was my calling,as taking photographs was a serious hobby. In an era when a bright Indian male was either a doctor,a lawyer,a chartered accountant or an engineer,there couldn’t be a blacker sheep than me.

Whenever I would see an image that I liked,it invariably had the credit of ­Gautam Rajadhyaksha. Since I was ­completely clueless about how to contact him,I tried every Rajadhyaksha in the phone book but he wasn’t listed. Three days later,a fluke connection with a ­relative of his got me his number.

Bizarrely enough,I still remember it: 3693150.

When I first called him,I told him about myself,and asked him if he could spare some time to tell me about the real world of professional photography. So,he called me to his ­office at Lintas,where he used to work then,and since that meeting,there was no looking back.

Apart from explaining the business and letting me hang around at some of his shoots,he selflessly introduced me to various stalwarts in the profession. Then,he even met my father who was,by then,going justifiably nuts at my proposed ­career switch,and convinced him that he may not need to keep a trust fund for me after all.

What do I say about Gautam’s photography? Photographers like Gautam and Richard Avedon,also known for his classic portraitures,captured to a large extent the soul of a human being. Which is why an Avedon picture — even if it was shot in the ’50s — never looks dated. You would enjoy looking at it even today. That was true of Gautam as well,whose photography was simple and straightforward. He never used technique for technique’s sake. A lot of people say he used soft focus in his photographs,which I find unfair and disparaging to him. Celebrities in every era want to look perfect and flawless. Re-touching a photograph takes just half-an-hour today,but 20 years ago,it was an expensive,slow and cumbersome process.

There was so much more to Gautam,my mentor,guru,friend and guide. A vast reservoir of varied and deep interests in the arts. From opera to English literature and Marathi theatre,from cuisine to wine. Genuinely fluent in three languages,he could talk and write authoritatively on any subject. Till I met Gautam,it seemed like the only culture I’d experienced was in my yoghurt.

Time spent at his eclectic art deco home in South Mumbai was,for me,like recharging my batteries. I looked forward to our meetings,you could pretty much pick up from where you left. I invariably left smiling and raring to go,satiated with some smoked fish and lashings of white wine. What I learnt from Gautam was more lateral than technique. And that has held me in as much good stead as my education at photo school has. “If you have to be good at your art,you need to appreciate all other forms of it,” he would say.

If my eyes are open to the finer things in design,architecture,music,food,­graphics and literature,Gautam planted the seed. In some subliminal way,your life’s influences come to the fore,he ­believed,when you use 1/125th of a ­second to freeze something.

He’d say,“Technique is easy,people management is the real skill.” And he had that skill. Gautam made everyone comfortable. Men,women and children. People older than him and younger. Industrialists and movie stars. Strugglers and wannabes. He had a gift. People eased up. Dropped their guard,opened their souls,and then he pressed the shutter on frames that shall live forever. A legacy of fine portraiture.

He started the process of making the profession “respectable”. Today,a photographer in advertising is seen in a cool,with-it space. Rajadhyaksha did for us what Kapil Dev did for Sachin Tendulkar and in turn Sachin did for today’s cricketers. He set the ball rolling. He held his head high and radiated the self-belief that he was an ­active contributor to a ­creative process. He taught me to truly believe this.

An era has ended with the passing of Gautam Rajadhyaksha.

The way I see it,the only way to pay him back for his generosity of time and spirit is to take it forward.