arkodatto photography

My Photo scholarship 2010 entry

France | Monday, October 18, 2010 | flickr photos

i am a student in paris and i have been ardently photographing life in france and my motherland bengal for about five years now.
the images here are from protest rallies in paris against proposed reforms to retirement benefits.
i have been experimenting a lot lately and the images here are a reflection of that.

the first image was possible because of the lovely light that set the backdrop and which was of the right intensity at that very precise moment.the smoke from the flares added to the overall effect.
the second one i obtained while waiting for some low-angle images and this child came to see what i was doing out of sheer curiosity.i am very much interested in the role played by children in protest movements and whether it is justified to bring them to protest rallies.
the third one is an experiment on motion which i obtained when the protesters where running down the road.
the fourth one is a portrait showing the abundant energy of the protestors and also the multicultural aspect of france.
the fifth and my favourite was a pure stroke of luck because of the different elements at play.the light had to be perfect and then the balloon had to come and block the strong glare of the sun and then there had to be smoke for the flares to sufficiently diffract the light.sheer stroke of luck,all the elements were in place for this image! it symbolises finally for me the light shining on people on their road to victory.

that's it for the pictures here.apart from trying to document cultures and peoples,to destress myself i love to do landscape photgraphy,especially long exposure photography during the blue hour . also,i love birds and have been trying to catch their graceful forms in motion ever since i got my dslr a couple of years back.
that is all about me and my photostory!cheers!