Pubarun Basu: Meet Kolkata's young photographer who bagged an international award

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As a toddler, Kolkata boy Pubarun Basu played with his father's camera, and gradually the interest in photography grew up through nature, wildlife, amateur photography. As a photographer, Pubarun loved to click natural shots, but the picture which won him the international fame, was 'created' and not a natural click.

The 20-year-old won Sony World Photography Awards on April 15 for his picture, titled 'No Escape from Reality'. The picture is a story of confinement told through his lens during lockdown. "When I was in home during lockdown, the images of shadow and various reflections of sunlight created through the curtains in our windows attracted me. One day in July, I asked my mother to raise her hands behind the curtain in a sense that she was trapped."

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Narrating the technical details of the shot, he said, "I clicked the photo with a Nikon 16-35mm f/4 ED VR lens attached to Nikon D800E. The shutter speed was kept at 1/40sec with f/4 aperture and ISO 400. The focal length at that time was 32mm."

Why 'No Escape from Reality'? According to him, the picture portrays the present time, when "human being is entrapped himself in fear of an invisible enemy. We are behind masks, could not express ourselves freely, the picture shows the condition of human being in a confined world." The tile came into his mind from Bohemian Rhapsody's song titled 'Queen'- having lyrics, "Is this the real life?/ Is this just fantasy?/ Caught in a landslide/ No escape from reality." 

This year, the theme of the 'Sony World Photography Awards 2021' was composition and design. This is the 14th year of the competition, and Purban is the first Indian to have won this title.

Pubarun first got international fame at the age of 16, when his photograph got featured in Editor’s Favourite archive in National Geographic Your Shot, his picture was also published in BBC in 2018. Two of his pictures were exhibited at the Kolkata International Photography Festival in 2019.

He attributed his success to his parents, saying, "Being a professional photographer, my father Pranab Basu is my soul inspiration to be into this profession, my mother Enakshi Basu always supported me in my career path."

The second-year student of English Literature at The Bhawanipur Education Society College, Pubarun has also passion in playing tabla, and wants to choose where he can use both of his skills- 'tabla' and 'photography'. After completing graduation, he is thinking of to move into 'movie production', but according to him, "it's difficult to think of your career in this pandemic time. Let we live first, then career."

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