From the pin-hole camera to the latest variety, like that in-set within a dainty mobile-set – a marvel of models! Where is its journey’s end none can say, perhaps, Once, some decades back, when Soviet Russia rubbed shoulders with the USA, one US-pilot Mr. Powers was caught napping while he was taking secret photographs of some Russian military installations. The latter were declared prohibited air-zones but Powers thought that his snaps were from such dizzy heights, he could escape with impunity (= without fear of punishment). But the Soviet aviation caught him napping he was discovered in the act from a higher zone.
Thus photography, a fashion-tool, has served in the last World War. The war pictures today, say like Rommel, the Desert Fox, have become alive with the file-photos that are preserved in the archives.
Photography began as an amateur exercise and, almost overnight, became an indispensable tool. Today it has invaded nearly every walk of human life, so much so that it even threatens to usurp (= snatch by force) art. Costly paintings that served as panels in sophisticated drawing rooms are slowly yielding place to the photography of natural beauty and grandeur that are cheaper. They look as life-like as the original paintings.
But man, today, is an arch-grabber. Whatever and wherever he can lay his hands on, he would exploit to the finish. Thus photography, too, is used or misused to the limit. We hear of secret cameras that are placed in concealed corners of posh hotels. It steals into the privacies of.its customers and sells them as hot stuffs. On the better side, such cameras placed at significant quarters in dense forests give us rare views of the animals, birds or insects at night.
To cover the role of photography within the range of this essay is literally to put a storm within a tea-cup. It has literally stormed into our life, Criminals use it to locate military hide outs and anti-terrorists use it to trap militants. Recently the CTV cameras caught unawares the photos of bombers as they passed through the London subways.
A more exalted (= noble) role of camera is evident in the outer space. We observe the launching of satellites, the impinge (= clash) of objects into a passing comet in the TV. Again, it has invaded our kitchen, our drawing rooms. Magazines, hoardings, posters are its principal agents. bombard our unprepared mind and sensibility through the subtle devices of photography. Photography, thus, is the father of consumerism today.
What might be the net result, we ponder. The truth is that today, the bad is an ouster of the good. Photography and politics, the two Ps, have become arch rivals. Tarun Tejpal might try to bring the corrupt officer out of his laird (= den where an anima: or prowler hides) through a crafty use of photography. The hush- hush politician shall ransack (= destroy) his office, convict him with trumped-up (= artfully created) charges and harass his family. So? What is its future?
