This picture was taken in a mosque where children read and learn about the Qur’an.

Gautam Narang, India / Drik Picture Library

This picture was taken in a mosque where children read and learn about the Qur’an. I was walking around the class. When I saw this kid I just paused. There was something special about him. The picture was taken in New Delhi, near where I live – which shows you don’t have to travel far to find something amazing.

What catches one person’s eye, while another walks past? With photography I have learnt the value of detail. It has taught me to look. This requires more than clicking a button. The camera allows the user to catch an image, but it is the artist who sees it. Life is full of speeded-up days, clutter – and very special moments. The camera allows you to focus, to observe a moment properly.

In India, I see uncensored reality – real poverty, real madness – not the sanitized, cleaned-up, behind-closed-doors society of places like Britain. Photography raises questions without giving answers. In their quest for answers, artists simply find more questions. Everything can be doctored – even these words. Read them once, forget them – and go make your own art.

Gautam Narang, India
By arrangement with Drik Picture Library Ltd, www.drik.net

This article is from the August 2005 issue of New Internationalist.
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