On World Photography Day I Pay Tribute To Urchins Beggars ..Who Helped Me Become Humble As A Photographer, a photo by firoze shakir photographerno1 on Flickr.
I am a street photographer and my indulgence is pain , on the street and in the heart and souls of people I shoot , I came into photography very late in life but a short stint in the 80s with Mudra Communications Court House Dhobi Talao ,rubbed off the emulsion of photography on me .. I never can imagine I would ever become a photographer , photography those days was tough , painstaking I think, but I had the opportunity working as a co ordinator for the Vimal suiting campaigns as a stylist and so the Kabir Bedi shoot with Mr Suresh Sheth was a great experience at the Taj Mahal Agra , it was to be shot by Pablo Bartholomew , but Pablo got busy with his photo journalism.
I met a lot of great photographers and would not like to name drop, but a few helped me a lot , late Suresh Cordo, Mr SS Oberoi Daulat Building Post Office Colaba, Nadish Naorojee , Adrian Stephen , Chin Win Lee , Pankaj Shah Urmilla Deshpande ,Shantanu Sheorey and many others ..
I left Mudra came back to my own field and than met Mr Shreekath Malushte who taught me basic photography , joined PSI Mumbai met my next guru late Mr BWJatkar and than my ultimate guru Mr KG Maheshwari.
I met Mr Girish Mistry Vinay Parelkar , Mr Panje , Mr Jothady , Bhupesh Little Anil Risal Singh and many others than came the Internet blogging and I got another Guru Dr Glenn Losack and I began shooting beggars and their poetry of life ..
Flickr has been my school , my college of photography, it groomed me gave me shape form and poetic dimension , and today I am a hardcore fan of Ms Marissa Mayer of Yahoo.. who has revived Flickr in more ways than one.
I met some great photographers on Flickr and seeing their pictures made me student all over again , and all they gave me I gave and nurtured my grand daughters Marziya Shakir now 5 shoots on Canon EOS 7D and 2 year old Nerjis Asif Shakir with my help in holding the camera shoots on Canon EOS 60D .. Zinnia Fatima 21 month old my third grand daughter can shoot too with my help..
My wife my sons my daughter all are good with the camera .. it is an integral part of our familys ethos ,, it gave us hope peace harmony .. it has not given us money does not matter , we are amateur photo lovers ..
So once again Happy World Photography Day to all of you ..
I learnt photography through some great photo journalists too I have mentioned Pablo my dear friend , Mukesh Parpiani, Anil Bhartiya , Gautam Singh , KK Suresh , Nitin Sonawane , Satish Malavade , Gautam Dada Sahara Samay.. to name a few ..
My nephew is a famous hotshot Reuters photographer Adnan Abidi.. an excellent human being and a loving person...If I have forgotten somebody please forgive me I am a diabetic and my memory is in very bad shape.. I am still learning from all of you my friends on Flickr ..
