“A photographer must create value beyond visual appeal”
…excerpts from the article written by S R Madhu for Madras Book Club’s newsletter – Between the Lines
Sudhir Ramchandran
Spirit
Sudhir Ramchandran’s wizardry in the art and craft of photography has won him admirers far and wide. His images often hypnotise the viewer – whether they show stunning models or vast hilly landscapes, whether they capture the grandeur and glitter of a seven-star hotel or the technology glitz of an automobile or a wind turbine.
Sudhir has raised the bar for advertising, industrial, fashion, hospitality, lifestyle and portrait photography. Based in Bangalore, he has made waves far beyond. He has won several prestigious international awards including the New York Gold for fashion photography as well as UN awards for photojournalism.
“His pictures are so lifelike that they seem to leap out of the page,” says Vijay Kumar Krishnamurthy, a Chennai photographer, one of many mentored by Sudhir. His photographs have been widely published in magazines and calendars including the National Geographic. Sudhir’s book Kerala, A Magical Odyssey is a best seller. Ten thousand copies have been sold in three editions.
Art of Photography
Lighting is crucial for Sudhir’s masterpieces. For most products, he uses a combination of ambient light and studio lights operated by remote control and movie lights. His lighting teams usually include about half a dozen technicians and assistants. The awesome razzle-dazzle of his campaigns for hotels is often generated by 20-strong teams handling high-end equipment with innovation and imagination.
Thorough and painstaking research – study of books, architecture, famous paintings and movies – precedes his photo campaigns for hotels. He has led most photo campaigns of the ITC hotel group from 1975, when the Chola was set up in Chennai. He was asked to bring the feel of Paris — particularly the Eiffel Tower — to Calcutta for his photography of ITC Royal Bengal.
On studying Royal Bengal’s architecture, he felt that photography for this building had to achieve a balance between internal and external lighting. Sudhir studied the celebrated painting The Last Supper in Milan to find out how Leonardo da Vinci achieved the deep depth three dimensional effect. Before his photography for ITC Kohenur, Hyderabad, he visited and studied Trafalgar Square in London to understand the blending of colours with blacks in a special day due to their direction of light across plaza.
While the ITC is Sudhir’s premier hospitality client, he has done photo campaigns for the Taj group as well – such as the Taj Coromandel, Taj Connemara and Fisherman’s Cove in Chennai; the Oberoi and Hilton groups; and the Banyan Tree Hotels and Resorts group.
Work for the Banyan Tree Hotels and Resorts took him to Sri Lanka and Indonesia. He has also served the Singapore Tourism Board and created several campaigns such as Formula 1, Chinese New Year, Jurong Bird Park and others.
How it all began
Apart from his super-skills as a photographer, Sudhir is an academic who has conducted workshops at premium institutions like the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad, the Chamarajendra Academy of Visual Arts, Mysore, National Gallery of Modern Arts, Bengaluru and Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath, Bengaluru. He has attended many international workshops conducted by Rockport Maine, a New York based photo institute as well as similar sessions in Schaffhausen, Switzerland and NewYork, USA.
Sudhir was born in Tanzania. His father was an accountant, his mother an entrepreneur. He owned his first camera, the Hasselblad at the age of 16, gifted to him by his mother. He graduated in botany and zoology from colleges in Calicut and Trivandrum, returned to Tanzania at age 21 and lived there for four more years.
He worked for the Govt. of Tanzania as an educator. He moved to India at age 25 to pursue what turned out to be an illustrious career in photography with studios and colour labs in Chennai, Bengaluru & Singapore.
Ever since coming to India, his goal has always been to see what he could do to raise the art of photography in a period when there were no advertising photographers, especially 1975 – 1985.
He was grasping the industry standard very quickly and realised that unless the South Indian industry coherently came together they would not rise or be respected in the same term as the rest of the country especially Bombay & Delhi.
He gathered Hyderabad, Chennai, Cochin & Bangalore initially under the south leadership and got the formation of AIPA India with the north, west and south with a large must- participate holistic workshop ‘The Compression Curve ‘ (CC) – to achieve full tonal values of an image through techniques and technologies before, during and past photography production. The CC solved a critical industry problem.
Sudhir conceptualized some of the largest workshops in the country including the NewSchool-91, a holistic school of advertising photography, Infinity 97 that connected established stakeholders of multifarious industries and the
a) Image-makers of the advertising and conceptual fields as well as the
b) Image-buyers of the global industry.
He was the President of AIPA ( Advertising & Industrial Photographer’s Association), India and Ambassador to the World Council of Professional Photographers (WCCP) for over 5 years. As one who has undergone several issues during the nasal stage of photography. Sudhir as President of the all India body sought to fix the challenges of the fledgling advertising photography industry. Especially those who had hit him and others like him since the mid 70s. These included,
- HAVING A HIGHER BRAND EQUITY which brought about a quicker solution to several industry malaises
- Quicker payment closures for projects
- Larger and more decisive voices in conceptual brand decision making
- Higher sponsorships and closer creative collaborations
- Education that closed the gap between Indian & International creators
- AWARENESS WAS CREATED ABOUT A VASTLY HIGHER DUTY for equipment for Indian photographers which with intervention with the central ministry we were able to markedly depreciate duties for the same
- BROUGHT ABOUT A CLOSE-KNIT UNITY that invigorated the creative Indian of the photography
Conceptualised THE IMAGING SUMMIT – A ‘wholistic’ workshop for India. An International workshop involving the finest photographers across the globe. However, the project has been put on hold for now.
At 75, Sudhir displays amazing energy on many fronts. A magnificent pictorial book on India is in the pipeline, also one on Karnataka. He continues to photograph, speak, write and mentor with gusto, tempered by serenity.
Awards
- The Architecture MasterPrizeTM Award in Photography (2020)
- IPA (International Photography Awards) (2018)
- Syngenta Photography International Awards, London: OUTSTANDING PORTRAYAL of food production and HIGH ARTISTIC QUALITY (2013)
- Fashion: NEW YORK GOLD for Star TV – Fashion – Channel V Calendar (2007)
- Webby Awards: The International Academy of Digital Arts & Sciences, HEALTH (2006)
- Webby Awards: The International Academy of Digital Arts & Sciences, Hospitals Group (2006)
- Editorial Certificate of Recognition, World Health Organization (WHO) International Photographic Competition, “Health for all – All for Health”, Geneva (1998)
- International Federation of Photographic Art (FIAP) ‘Sinews of Prosperity’, Vienna (1998)
- Editorial: The Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) GOLD MEDAL – by the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), Vienna (1983)
- Editorial: The Focal Press Special Prize by UNIDO and FIAP (1983)
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