Cocoon: Firstly we would like to know, after all these years, how your journey was? How did it all start?

Swapan Nayak: For some people getting started is a special event, for some, it happens quite naturally.

From the beginning I have this knack for pictures, in our time picture means paintings or drawings, photography was not that common, like how it happens in our school life. So I was really interested in drawing like everyone else like some people are interested in football and some in others, I had that interest. To this date the vast knowledge I have acquired in the field of photography, Chitrabani played a vital part in it. Without Chitrabani the distance I have covered in this field would have been much less.

Why Chitrabani? The most important aspect of Chitrabani was its library. Excellent library. Like how we search on the internet and you get to look at the pictures, Just like that. Along with the library, a course on photography used to be held there. When I took the membership in the library a course was already going on, so I couldn’t get enrolled in the course. I was really interested in doing that course. So what I did was I followed that course, what the participants were doing, what their assignments were, what their teachers were saying, everything I used to ask them. It was like parallelly doing the same course.

My introduction to advanced photography happed in Chitrabani. Firstly the books, where I read about this gentleman named Henri Cartier-Bresson, who is called ‘The father of modern photography’. I would have never known about him if I didn’t come here. For the first time I saw his photographs in his book, It was my good fortune. In Chitrabani, there are four books on him. Bresson in China, Bresson in Russia and others.

After that I got this opportunity of freelancing, taking inspiration from my time in Chitrabani. My first freelancing happened with The Statesman, they didn’t like my first two features, in the third time, I still remember, I worked on the circular rail in Kolkata spanning around Babughat. Now it runs quite regularly but back then it wasn’t so. Around two or three trains would run in a day. The very peculiar incident, running through the outskirts of the city, some compartments containing only ten passengers, really weird, and its history. In one of the books in Chitrabani, I found that history. During the British Raj many many years ago the circular rail was initiated, but frequently it used to get discontinued and continued and discontinued again…this was going on for long. Based on that history I decided to do my feature photography, travelling along those railroads, taking many photographs. This time they liked it very much and gave me a feature in their esteemed newspaper.

That was my first publication in The Statesman. My first breakthrough.

That too a single image feature, which I still fancy, those big fonts with my name and the photograph along with it. So obviously It was quite special, I didn’t know if I felt like a king or others, whatever, that day was memorable.

After that, I was featured multiple times in The Statesman. So, that’s how I started freelancing with The Statesman. After that, mainly I worked there in the feature photography section for the Sunday Statesman. I provided my works as well for their daily newspaper for some time, but I wasn’t that much interested in it. I was more interested in their feature photography.  After one and half years when The Asian Age started its publication in Kolkata, I approached them. They liked me. So you can say, The Asian Age gave me my first job as a photographer, before that all I did was freelancing for The Statesman. 

Then a magazine called ‘Outlook’, they were starting their magazine anew. I got the news and sent my portfolio to them. Prashant Panjiar was the photo editor there from the beginning. So after seeing my portfolio, they liked me very much. So my journey with Outlook had begun, you can call it my second job, I continued with Outlook for 13 years.

In 2008, I left Outlook. I did leave in 2008 but since 2004 I was planning to leave because in my mind I was thinking enough is enough. I wasn’t having any thrill. It was fun in the beginning because I was getting the news assignments, having to go to Assam, Arunachal Pradesh etc.

(CAM: you get to travel)

Yeah! It is a national magazine I was travelling everywhere, like Orissa, Bihar, Andaman etc.  Honestly, Magazines aren’t like daily newspapers, here you have your own freedom. A story is given to you, they explain it all…(cam: the storyline is being given) how you construct it, is up to you. For a feature story in a magazine you have to think of a leading picture, in its support there would be another four to five pictures, as supporting pictures. So you can be yourself.

Another thing that doesn’t happen to everyone but I was really lucky that it did to me, that I had Prashant Panjiar as my photo editor. An important criteria for a photographer is that you have to make your own style. Without a unique style, you wouldn’t prevail, you wouldn’t belong and you would remain average. “I am Prashant Panjiar, you are working here, I am giving you scope and freedom and all this thing.. but you have to make your own style on your own”. He told this to everybody who worked in Bangalore, Bombay, Delhi or Kolkata (myself),.. so this was a huge thing for me. Surprisingly when he used to edit, he surely did understand every one of us. 

Suppose you took ten rolls to picture for an assignment and someone is taking ten images out of these ten rolls, It’s not an easy job at all and that ten image is also reflecting our ideas as well. That means you learned it. So the thirteen years in “Outlook” was not only a job for me, Rather learned a lot and got a chance to enrich myself. Gauri Gill was also in Outlook I worked with her as well. So that was my job life.

Then in 2008, I left it, because I felt that now it’s time to try something else. I’d done this and understand this. Again that time an opportunity came, Tasveer, an organisation based in Bangalore, started exhibiting and selling photographs. They first exhibited my work in 2008 later they did other two exhibitions.

Cocoon: So you observed the entire journey, like when you started photography, it was the time when a generation started taking photography more seriously in India and that pattern changed a lot in present days. How do you look at this change?

Swapan Nayak: The time when we started and at that time photography was in a different position, that time we had to click pictures on film. There was a kind of mystery. You need to know photography, know how to operate the camera, need to know how to work with films, only after knowing this, you can do photography. Now it’s a completely different scene. If you have a mobile, then you are a photographer and for that, you don’t need to know anything. Only you have to push the button. But at that time you at least need some knowledge about photography, you need to know what is a film and what is exposure? So this is a huge change. This change comes with digital technology in photography. It almost 15 years. At some point, I think if this change had not come, we could belong to a much happier place because that limitation of that time and today’s limitations are different. It is not only for photography it is true for all creative fields.

I personally don’t believe that in any creative field you will get something very easily. It’s a bit difficult for me to accept this. From my belief and philosophy I  can’t really trust this rather I believe to get it only if you have given that much labour and sacrifice. To become worthy enough, there are certain ways. It’s a long journey, a practice you have to carry on with this practice.

You can find this idea in the writing of Rabindra Nath, and Sankha Ghosh had a book on it named “সৃষ্টি এবং নির্মাণ”. If we try to explain these two words, we realize many ideas that নির্মাণ and সৃষ্টি (making and creation) are two different acts. Maybe those words are close but from a philosophical standpoint, they are completely different. Construction is, say you are academically skilled, you sure can construct something like a beautiful house,  you are an architectural engineer you can build a beautiful designer house but I wouldn’t call that creation. Yes, technically the same thing is being made, but when a creative person builds it, the result will be different. So if we are clear about the concept of construction and creation, we can clearly point out the differences.

Cocoon: Why did you choose monochrome over colour in the process of image-making?

Swapan Nayak: This seems to be a very common question for me. Everyone asks me this and my usual response to this question is pretty simple. It’s like when you go to a hotel and the waiter asks you “Sir Veg or Non-Veg?” This is just like that. It can’t be like someone who prefers veg is untouchable or a fool. Maybe he just loves veg food. That’s how we have our choice of food. For me it’s pretty much like that, I make images in monochrome by choice.

Though there is another reason. The genre of work I do; I mean my photography is not information-based. I don’t do so-called documentary photography. I mean my photography is not information based in that sense. My approach is rather more philosophical & also very poetic to some extent.  That’s how I look at my work. So black and white seem to be more appropriate for my practice. Colour on the other hand makes it difficult for me to express the way I want to create my work’s impression.

You see in philosophical works, quite often memory becomes an important element. So, whenever I do work with a philosophical approach the concept of the past usually comes. And black and white seem to work perfectly in such a situation.

So like I said earlier, that my work is not informative rather it’s philosophical and poetic, and I try to distance myself from pictorial pictures so… I mean everything in photography is pictorial, but then I am not that so-called pictorial. I try to be poetic in terms of composition and all. So Black and White suit well with my work it seems.

Cocoon: How did you get hold of this rock?

Swapan Nayak: Ahh this I got it in Shantiniketan itself. Though I came to know about it from students of Kala Bhavan.

Cocoon: Fascinating to know that nine types of colour pigments can be extracted from this rock!!

Swapan Nayak: This is not my credit. Actually, this technique has been invented by Nandalal Bose. He was the first person to figure out that it’s possible to extract colour pigments from mineral rocks. This is taught to Kala Bhavan students, and I came to know about these natural pigments from them.

We use that particular one [commercial colour pigments] for watercolour but you can use this as a substitute to the commercial colours. The pot artisans here work with the vegetable colour as well. Also, in the houses of santal, you will see the use of Earth colour. They don’t use commercial house paint. So, this type of soil is available here.

Cocoon: Yes, especially I have seen it to be used over the potato. “Ela Mati” it’s called.

Swapan Nayak: Yes, Like near to my house there is a place where such soil is available. They collect it from there as well. It’s not available everywhere, only in some specific areas. Especially in this area of the Chota Nagpur region, it’s found often.

Worldwide people who work with this kind of material, is almost like a meditation you can say. Or again it’s the journey. The journey that you are a part of has certain happiness of its own. When you are entangled with creative work, it’s not like that the world is different for you. You do because you get happiness out of it. Maybe searching inward.

So, this is a journey of my own. Like I have collected this material and then worked on it. And then when I am making images out of the whole process, there is sheer happiness within me. I don’t think that this happiness can be explained or shared with someone who has not gone through this entire process. It won’t be valuable for others who haven’t undertaken this journey.

That is why I don’t call myself a photographer anymore. I am a creative practitioner. Photography for me is a medium. I mean I understand the medium well so I use it. If I knew good use of words, then probably I would have ended up being a poet or literary person.

Cocoon: Through your practice do you want to come close to nature.

Swapan Nayak: definitely.

Cocoon: I mean the way you live and the atmosphere in which you live.

Swapan Nayak: Yes totally. More you come here you will know why.

Cocoon: Yes. Like the way, you have collected the soil and worked with it. I mean using nature to create art.

Swapan Nayak: Absolutely. I mean there is a different type of happiness involved in it. Creativity offers such rare bliss. Because if there is any goal, it’s of course to attain greater happiness.

Cocoon: …and your photo-story on “Radha Krishna” portrays that isn’t? The works seem very close to nature.

Swapan Nayak: Yes, it is so.  I mean if you study some of the great masters of all time, you will see that there is hardly any, who have done masterworks staying away from nature.

I believe you all have seen the films of Tarkovsky. You will see that Tarkovsky has always and always returned to nature through his works anyway or the other. I mean crisis, problems etc. and then finally returning to nature in order to find peace and harmony.

So, this is the fundamental of creativity. Things have appealed and formed meaning for me, in this way now. Separately I don’t perceive it as such photography at all. Maybe it was five years back. But now it’s not, absolutely not.

Cocoon: It seems to have merged for you.

Swapan Nayak: Yes. It has become one and absolute. Like I am really happy. Happy because I can share this message with four of you. After that what you all will do with it is not my point. At least this will stay with you people. You all will at least know that you can see the world this way as well. This is possible. This in itself is happiness for me, that I made four of you aware of this perception. It’s not impossible to survive this way.

This is what it is.