SLOGAN
MURUGAN
PHOTOBLOGGER
EXTRAORDINAIRE
He brings you a slice of Mumbai every day.
Mumbai, the city of dreams, the city that never sleeps, and a city that is the
Mecca for all aspiring Indians, be it the Bollywood hopeful or the financial
upstart.
He is a copywriter by profession and a photographer by passion. Meet M S
Gopal, aka Slogan Murugan, whose brilliant photo-blog Mumbai Paused,
brings you Aamchi Mumbai as it is.
Just like a copywriter who is always in
the background of the advertisements he creates, Gopal too is the man behind
the lens that chronicles Mumbai. You only see his iconic photographs.
The
gift that changes his life forever:
It all began, when his wife gifted him a
point-and-shoot camera. He needed to learn how to use the camera, so he began
taking photographs of everything he saw around him. Soon, it turned into a
passionate hobby, it eventually led to
his first photo-blog, Which Main? What Cross?
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In an email
interview, M S Gopal, aka Slogan Murugan, shares his thoughts about his life
and his world.
As a keen observer of life around you, what is it that draws
your attention on a street or on the pavement, that you think will be worth
photographing?
To use a cliché, it is
the extraordinary things hidden in ordinary things that draw my attention. The
ordinary things are something we all share without noticing. For example: the
shade of a tree or an old man on his morning walk you pass every day, who we
will probably miss only if we miss seeing him after a few days when he is gone
forever. The new leaves on a banyan tree in March or April. Everything is worth
photographing; it is how it connects to us at a given moment that makes it
extraordinary, perhaps.
A picture is worth a thousand words, or is it worth more than
that?
I am a copywriter. I
work for an advertising agency. In my job, it is not the number of words, but
how well we use the words that is important. However, for photographs,
especially for good photographs, the ideal comparison is the value that a poet
would assign to a word, a comma or a semi-colon. How can we limit that to just
a thousand words?
Does it help to be a copywriter?
Yes. The raw material
that a copywriter uses to sell things and influence people comes from the behavior
of people as individuals and groups. It makes me aware of people’s habits and
it changes the point of view of the images.
Do you upload your photographs ‘as taken’ or do you edit them
before posting them on your blog?
No, I usually crop and adjust the brightness,
contrast and sometimes the colors of the images. I use a software called Lightroom to make changes.
Have you ever gone back to the same street to take photographs?
Yes. I do that often.
Nothing stays the same on a street. It changes from day to day, minute to
minute and often, you discover new things on repeat visits. When I used to live
in Bangalore, I used to visit the Majestic theatre and Gandhinagar every Friday
morning on my way to work. It was the day Kannada movies were released and each
week I used to discover a different aspect of the Friday movie release day.
Between colour, and black and white photography, which do you
prefer and why?
I mostly shoot in color
but that is because I have not been able to get the hang of using black and
white well. I am learning.
Do you have any other hobbies besides photography?
I try to read as many
books as possible and I am addicted to surfing aimlessly on the Internet,
reading useless things.
Can you recall any special moments ever since you took up
photography?
There are too many.
One of the happiest was watching kids outside Kanteerava Stadium, in Bengaluru,
climbing a wall. (A climbing wall is an artificially constructed wall with
grips for hands and feet, usually used for indoor climbing, but sometimes
located outdoors). I assume that today they are accomplished climbers
conquering new peaks.
According to you, what makes India so special?
I have never been
outside of India so I do not know how India compares with the world. However, I
love my home and I find no particular urge to go outside of India to shoot
images. There is so much to see here and I do not think I will be able to do
justice to a city like Mumbai where I live, or my hometown Bangalore, in a
lifetime.
According to you, what are the three essential ingredients for a
good photograph?
Good story.
Interesting composition. Luck.
As a copywriter, do you ever ‘doodle’ or draw ‘cartoons’ in your
spare time? If yes, could you share some of them with us?
I do not. However, I
collaborate with an illustrator named Amol Urankar to create one frame stories
about Mumbai.
According to you what is so ‘incredible’ about India?
It has to be the
people. Unity in diversity is something that we live every day. The incredible
smiles on our faces, even when a camera is not focused on us, is what make
it so incredible.
Could you describe yourself?
Even before Mr. India
was made, I used to imagine that I was invisible and I was watching the world
without being a part of it. My hobby is probably an extension of that fantasy.
Photo-Blog
“Paused”:
(Email
interview – June 2020):
The Coronavirus Pandemic has literally put a "PAUSE
BUTTON" on all our lives. Now that you are
back with Lockdown Diaries, have things changed?
Mumbai Paused has now become a reality and I wish it had
not. The city has not really stopped but a lot of what defines it took a long
pause. I hope we “unpause” it in a good way and the city will adapt to the
changing world!
Would you be doing a series
on the new norm "People-Masks"?
Yes. I would be doing. But not portraits. I am sure that this
mass adoption of masks will provide some interesting stories. From selling
them, designs to disposal. It is likely to fill our beaches this monsoon.
Namma
Ooru Bengaluru, your thoughts?
I miss Bangalore. It is one decade since I last lived there. I
often wished during the lockdown to give everything up in Mumbai like the
migrants and head back home and start fresh. It is a fantasy. I wish I could do
that.
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