“One moment. One split second. And the image a press photographer captured in that one split second stands out. That’s why photography is such a special art, and that’s why photographers bring us so much joy and so much pain.”

With those words, Editor-In-Chief and Group CEO, The Indian Express, Shekhar Gupta described the philosophy behind the Ramnath Goenka India Press Photo Awards, 2006—that even in the time of the moving image, press photography is a special skill to be treasured and paid tribute to. In its second edition, the Awards ceremony on Friday evening honoured 13 photo journalists from across the country, who won awards in several categories.

The awards, including cash prizes totaling Rs 6 lakh, were presented by Gupta and the chief guest, Shiv Sena executive president Uddhav Thackeray.

While Gupta regaled the audience with globe-trotting anecdotes of his run-ins with danger, photographer by his side, jury member Pablo Bartholomew—a two-time WPP award winner, former WPP jury member—suggested that The Indian Express should hold the awards in the first quarter of the year, so that there is a “sense of the year” and that the IPPA pictures should travel across India in an exhibition. The event also saw the inauguration of the exclusive preview of the 2006 World Press Photo exhibition. Thackeray, who spent several minutes browsing the WPP photos, said several images, “including those of civil war and strife”, actually made him dizzy. “On seeing these pictures and realising what danger the photographer was in at that moment, I felt there is so much more for us to learn,” he said, adding that not everybody could be a great photojournalist simply by wielding a camera. “You can give everybody in this room a Mont Blanc, but can’t make everybody a great writer or editor,” he said.

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