CHENNAI: Can a butterfly change a life? The answer should be ‘no’. Not unless you’ve spent almost half your life photographing devastation, heard an inner voice saying that respecting life is bigger than making a career out of chronicling despair, and moved on to become one of the most celebrated professionals in another line of work, where you find limitless joy because of the unexpected moments it presents.
But how can the story of John Isaac, former head of photography at United Nations, be that simple! After trying his luck as a Rock-and-Roll singer in Chennai, he landed in the US in 1965 seeking opening in music. A messenger’s job at the UN could have killed creative instincts, but led him into the darkroom as assistant, where despite efforts to keep it a secret, his bosses soon discovered he was winning contests. More than two decades of covering wars and famines in over 100 countries, promotions, awards and a nervous breakdown later, he felt he had had enough.
“The experience grew on me, leading me to think, is this what I must live for? My mother had taught me the value of human dignity. Documenting sorrow without being able to help the helpless, I felt I wasn’t paying respect to that. Pulitzer Prize means nothing to me if it comes at the cost of human suffering,” recollects John.
After seeking psychiatric help, he decided to discard his camera. That was when John saw the butterfly on a sunflower. That was the defining moment of his life, which also reshaped a career that has lasted 20 years.
John acknowledges the support of wife Jeanatte, a journalist for the Time magazine, who penned the text in several of his books based on images. Having explored the wilderness in North America and Africa, including a trip to the North Pole where he zoomed in on polar bears, this graduate in zoology from the University of Madras has been focusing his Olympus camera on tigers of Ranthambhore. This makes the New Yorker a frequent visitor to the jungle and also Varanasi, before hitting the city of his youth on the latest trip.
The 72-year-old native of Tiruchy interacted with shutterbugs, met friends and enthralled at a talk organised by the Photographic Society of Madras recently. The tiger project has drawn attention and the UN is involved in making a film on him and the cats he knows by name, like Machli and T-19.
“Unpredictability is part of the satisfaction that drives me towards shooting wildlife. You have to be alert all the time. The situation makes it challenging if I’m shooting a tiger chasing prey or a bird flying. One of the things taking pictures of wildlife has taught me is patience. I’ve also learnt one has to be vulnerable and out of the comfort zone to experience what this kind of work offers,” says the man who has worked with and befriended celebrities like Audrey Hepburn and Michael Jackson, the latter granting him rights to be the personal photographer.
John has spent a lot of time in Varanasi with widows who are abandoned by families. He has been mobilising young photographers through workshops to highlight their plight. “Varanasi is fascinating, city of life as well as death. Essentials of life are not visible to the eye. They have to be felt. This realisation helps me tell my story from my heart.” With deference for life, John might have an image of a swallowtail butterfly fluttering in it!