KOCHI: People love taking photographs and creating memories and in these times when cameras are easily accessible through smartphones, it is easy to preserve these memories. However, have you ever thought about the origins of the small handy device? Or how photography came into existence? Saji Ennakkad, from Kochi, has brought out a well researched history of photography in his book ‘Nischalam Nissabhdam ‘. An artist, director, photo-journalist, short-story writer- is what Saji describes himself. The KSEB employee says that he wanted to write a book ever since he attended a contest in photography in 2002. “This inspired me to learn more on photography. From then, I started referring a lot of books on the subject. Also, I noticed that no subjects revolving around photography were being taught in schools and colleges. So I decided to compile everything tracing the evolution of photography,” Saji said.
The book talks about the sacrifice made by Joseph Nicephore Niepce, the father of photography. The book is a compilation of matter he has researched from many books. “I wrote the book after researching the technical aspects involved with photography. The chronological order of the evolution of photography has been kept to give a flow to the whole storyline,” said Saji.
Apart from this, the story of the first successful photograph is also included in the book where it talks about how they found out the photograph after half a century as it was left neglected somewhere. It came to light only after 50 years. The author has traced the history of photojournalism. New discoveries in the field of photography and the photographs which influenced the world has also been discussed. The photograph of Mahatma Gandhi with a Charkha and Joseph Nicephore Niepce’s first photograph ‘View from a window’ is also present in the book. Kerala’s photojournalism history is also one of the chapters in the book.
The author has been working in this field of photography since 20 years and has even conducted photo exhibitions on Nalacharitham, a dance drama. Other than this, he has conducted exhibitions on wildlife photography, Bharatha darshanam, Thalvazhayude sangeetam. He is the president of the Photowide Camera club. He has wriiten a short-story ‘Magalude Shakshyam’. The author has won several state and national-level awards for his articles and photos.