26 • PSA Journal • December 2018 • www.psa-photo.org

This month’s Distinguished photographer was born in the “City of Joy,” Kolkata in India. Subrata Bysack, GMPSA/B, EFIAP/b became interested in photography during his school days when his father gave him a Kodak Click III camera. After graduating from college and taking a job with Allahabad Bank, he was able to purchase his first SLR Camera, Nikorrmat FT2 from his saved salary. Feeling the need to learn photography he joined Club Chhayapath, Calcutta as a student in 1988 and received a Diploma in photography in 1990. He started to participate in some National Salons and got acceptances and a few awards with photographs taken, processed, developed and printed in his bedroom darkroom. Due to the premature death of his father and taking over his fathers’s business in 1988, the burden of debts, and getting married in 1991 prevented him to pursue his passion for art photography for 20 years from 1992 to 2012. While not being able to take the time to photograph, he continued to take a few classes. After attending the Federation of Indian Photography (FIP) Convention at Rajamundry, India in November, 2012, his interest was renewed. He saw many of his friends getting

acceptances and FIAP distinctions while he sat back as a spectator with zero acceptances. This gave him the determination to excel in art photography.

Meanwhile his wife had become a film director and he assisted her as a Cinematographer and photographer in most of her short films, telefilms and documentaries from 2007 to 2012. This was the turning point to rekindle his passion for Art photography. Sabrata started to participate in international salons in 2012 and completed the criteria for AFIAP (2014) and EFIAP (2015) distinctions. He realized that to keep his passion alive, he had to find a goal which was ongoing, challenging and not easy to achieve. PSA ROPA distinctions were the only ones in the world that fulfilled these criteria. Subrata joined PSA in August, 2013 and started enjoying the challenge of ROPA distinction where one is encouraged to go for new works rather than going after awards.

In 2013, he got his Fellowship of Federation of Indian Photography (FFIP) and in August got his first Best Author Blue Pin with $2500 cash award from WES Biennial International Competition, Singapore. With his winnings, he purchased his

featuring...Subrata Bysack, GMPSA/B, EFIAP/b

India

istinctive Image

By Larry Cowles,

FPSA, GMPSA/P

Work on swords

PSA Journal • December 2018 • www.psa-photo.org • 27

second DSLR Canon EOS70D, the first being Nikon 5000D.

In 2014, Subrata received his most remarkable achievement to date, the 2013 Print of the Year Award in Wildlife from the PSA Nature Division, which later appeared as the cover page of the January issue of the PSA Journal, 2015. In 2014, he also received the Silver award from a competition held by RPS for which he visited Edinburgh, Scotland on invitation to receive the award and it was his first foreign visit for photography. In 2016 he presented at the PSA Conference.

The year 2016 was a very eventful year in his life. He became the 2nd Indian to receive the MPSA distinction in June, and 1st Indian to get the GPU Crown 4 distinction. He also received EFIAP/b and then BEPSS distinction from Singapore. In September, he attended the 78th PSA Annual Conference at San Antonio, Texas and delivered his presentation. Subrata related, “The wonderful feelings that I experienced at the Conference will be an everlasting one. I was surprised, astonished and emotional to see my country’s national flag at the centre stage of the main hall. Receiving the MPSA plaque from the PSA President at the honours banquet is also a remarkable memory for me.”

In 2017, he visited Heraklion, Greece at the festival event for the 10 years of Global Photographic Union (GPU) and visited Naiman at Inner Mongolia, China as one of ten photographers invited from ten different countries as a Guest of Honour by the autonomous body of “Inner Mongolia and GPU, China.” To top it off, he created history by becoming the first GMPSA from India.

2018 started with a visit to Gungzhou, China as a guest of honour and for photographic Achievement Award from International Union of Photographers (IUP), China. He upgraded his distinction of BEPSS to SEPSS from Singapore.

In less than six years of his participation in International salons, he is going to cross 10,500 international acceptances from 82 countries and more than 500 international awards from 50 countries and the last 100 awards coming from 74 different titles.

Subrata is a faculty member for the photographic courses conducted by Club Chhayapath, Calcutta

for more than 20 years, he also served as a Salon Chairman from 2014 to 2017 and is presently a FIP representative for his Club and Asst. Director of Region 2 Ethics Committee in India for PSA. Since 2016 he has served as a judge in more than 100 different international, national and local photographic competitions in India and aboard.

He was able to pioneer the movement to go for PSA membership and distinctions in the eastern part of India specially Bengal. His campaign to motivate and bring awareness to fellow photographers about the positive aspect of being a PSA member was a huge success. Subrata stated, “My initiation changed the outlook of this generation in my region towards the goodness of PSA, which resulted in increase of PSA patronized Salons and volunteer service providers like our SRD and Patronage Directors. I realized that if you want to keep alive your passion for art photography in the long run, you should get associated with PSA, and I was able to convey this message to the present generation of our region successfully. I consider this to be my greatest achievement in my endeavor to promote art photography, which indirectly acts as a meditation in this world of uncertainties.”

I had the opportunity to meet Subrata in person at the PSA Conference in Salt Lake City and watched him receive his GMPSA/B, the first person in India to receive this distinction. He is an excellent photographer and works hard to promote PSA in India.Wondering

Guardian of two

Photos © Subrata Bysack, GMPSA/B, EFIAP/b

Any mention of products or services in this article or anywhere else in the PSA Journal does not constitute an endorsement or approval of those items.

28 • PSA Journal • December 2018 • www.psa-photo.org

TechniqueSeeing beauty in everything is my weakness. So I photograph

anything that makes me feel good and is beautiful to me. But while I enjoy photographing everything, I get my greatest pleasure when photographing people, their emotion, their interaction and activity. Seeing and capturing this candid mood is not an easy task. To shoot people in true candid (not arranged candid) you need good reflexes and a camera that has no shutter lag. I enjoy traveling and photographing people, it gives me immense satisfaction. I carry with me three cameras, Canon EOS 70D with 70-300 zoom lens, Canon EOS 5D Mark III with 24-105 zoom lens and a small advanced prosumer camera Sony RX100 Mark IV. When I am traveling or at a location, I preset my camera adjustments according to site requirements and keenly observe what is going on around me and tune my senses to catch a glimpse of any photogenic activity or moment that may occur at any point in time. The moment I see something interesting I pull up the relevant camera and click the shutter to get that true candid. During such situations, I usually keep my camera in ‘On’ position with auto focus mode and shutter speed on the higher side to prevent shake for this suddenness. Since photography is all about capturing a specific moment you must practice to build a strong reflex. I use 70-300 lens to capture candid portraiture and emotions close up, 24–105 lens to capture any other interaction or activity and Sony RX 100 to capture images at different levels other than the eye level. Since the Sony RX 100 is a small camera and can be kept within the grip of the palm, it is very helpful for candid street photography where you can shoot without the subject being aware of being photographed. Pre-visualisation is very important to get a frame of a different type, for this you need to constantly see your surrounding through camera lens and see lots of good photographs in exhibitions and photography catalogue.

Education for all

A family chore

Entangled

Bonded elephant

PSA Journal • December 2018 • www.psa-photo.org • 29

Artist’s StatementMy passion in photography is like a meditation to

me. It helps to soothe my tensed nerves, which get fatigued after a hard day’s work. Other than working in a bank, I have to look after my family business, so I get very little time to devote to photography. I give priority to my passion by saving time from reading the newspaper, watching television and gossiping meaninglessly.

The hardship and struggle in my life taught me to see life from a different perspective. When I see the eyes of a person through my lens, I can see the hidden

feelings of the person that plays in his eyes and that is what I try to capture. The more you see people-in-activity through your lens the more you will observe the multiple change of emotions that is constantly taking place. I visualize these emotional changes as separate frames and when I arrange these frames one after another I can feel the essence of life in a simpler form. My passion for photographing people came from this realization. ‘Simplicity’ is the word that echoes inside me and my images are the outcome of it. Feeling the vibrancy of life and the attempting to freeze them within the frame of my camera is my natural inclination towards photography. This vibrancy of life is more apparent among children. Their innocence and emotion draws my subconscious mind towards them and that is the reason why most of my subjects are children.

The passion in photography will not get priority unless it comes out from the inside of your soul. So, to deliver good images one needs to be a good human being with purity of mind, only then the works will touch the heart of the viewer. The works of a photo artist can portray his character just like the face of a person does, so what I deliver, is actually, delivering myself and that is my identity.

The life we live is a short one, staying happy is a relative matter and it solely depends on you. Art is a form that helps you to recreate your mind. To me, photography is that art form which I use for my recreation and it has a medicinal effect on my mental health. My photography, just like meditation, elevates my mind to a different level, and it helps me to feel the true meaning of life and reach my ultimate goal ‘To Live Lively.’ n

Child and children

Gondi ritual for all ages

Wonder look

Thrist