Santosh Korthiwada is a visual storyteller who believes in conveying something beyond what is appearing in an image. And he still develops his negatives in his own dark room!
Santosh Korthiwada is a visual storyteller who believes photography is a holistic art. “I feel it’s not about just clicking pictures. It’s very important to convey something beyond what is appearing in an image. A photograph must challenge the viewer’s thinking. They should get the urge to do something about the ‘story’ that the image is conveying,” he says.
Caretaker at dargah in Bidar
Puli in Vizianagaram
Hailing from Chegunta village in Medak, Santosh took up photography as a hobby before his interest took him to San Francisco to pursue his Masters in Fine Arts Photography. “Things were not easy for me as everyone in the family wanted me to take up a professional course that would ensure steady earnings. I have a deep desire to pursue a career in teaching critical concepts and thinking in photography,” says Santosh. He has come up with ‘Consciousness’ — a display of black and white images wherein two unrelated images are displayed together to bring out a third view about them — for his exhibition at Goethe-Zentrum in Hyderabad. Santosh uses a Canon 35mm film camera and Canon 5D Mark II.
Unknown painting at Nirmal
Bullies of Bengali Tola at Varanasi
Mr Yadav in Varanasi
“Even today I like to take pictures on a film camera. There is more discipline when we shoot with a film camera as we have only 24 or 36 exposures at a given time. And it’s always nice to develop your film and take prints, especially in black and white photography. Back in San Francisco, I even have my own dark room to work on the negatives,” he says.
No business at Ganga ghat Varanasi 
Santosh Korthiwada
Getting ready at Vijayawada
His advice for young photographers is to not spend a bomb on high-end equipment. He says, “Every day nearly three billion images are uploaded on the internet. There is so much visual data. Everything is being photographed. But how many people are ‘looking’ at the photographs? A better camera may not result in a better picture. Take a picture in a way that is close to your heart. What does it mean to you? What do you want to convey through the picture? This uniqueness of the picture should always be there. The artistic interpretation and imagination have to go beyond the image.”
The writer is a musician and freelance photographer
