A lifetime of seeing

Introduce yourself and tell us how photography came into your life. Where did the journey begin?
I started photography as a school student in the early 70s with a Zeiss Ikon film camera and later graduated to a Nikon FM system. In 2003, I invested in a digital Nikon D100 – 6MP. Now gone mirrorless with two Fuji  X-E3 bodies  & 4 lenses. One leg still in the analog world, occasionally shooting Ilford FP4, HP5+ and Pan F rolls of film on my Rolleiflex 3.5f and Hasselblad 500 CM/503CW Systems using 50-80-180 and 500mm Zeiss glass.

A long-time exhibitor with several awards and considerable published work in print and on the web. I have been featured in several issues of the journals of the RPS, LensWork, Fuji X passion, Asian Photography, PSA Journal, French Foto, Lens magazine etc. Also interested in alternative techniques of Cyanotypes, Bromoil, Van Dyke Brown and Gum Bichromate techniques using large format internegatives. I have a particular fondness for monochrome images. Member of RPS, PSA. FIP and YPS. Currently serving as the Vice-President of the Photographic Society of Madras, a club established in 1857.

My exhibition – “Journey through India” of 50 large colour prints on Felix Schoeller True Rag paper opened at GALLERY 1885, London on Sept 8th 2026 and ran for 5 weeks. It celebrates 50 years of my photography starting from the early 1970s, and coincided with the gallery celebrating its 140th year.

I’m a retired company executive with a passion for culture, travel, landscape & portraits. Lives in Chennai, India.

How would you describe your photographic style today, and how has it changed over the years?
My mentor, when I started photography, was an internationally known pictorialist, Mr C. Rajagopal, who produced some extraordinary monochrome images of India in the late 1900s. His technique was simple – “look for the light”… something which I follow in my photography. Some people have said I have a style. I am not so sure. Style changes with age, experience and your vision, which is related to your creative capability.

Which photographers have shaped the way you see, and what exactly did you take from them?
My foundation in photography in the early 70s was influenced by my mentor Mr C. Rajagopal from Bangalore. My vision today is largely influenced by the work of  Ansel Adams, Tan Lip Seng, Fan Ho, E.Haas, Eric Meola, Yousuf Karsh, Jay Maisel, and Pete Turner. It taught me to not only look for light but also form, shape, contrast and colour.

If someone could see only one of your photographs, which would you choose to represent your work — and why that one?

It is difficult to pick just one image from a lifetime’s work of five decades. However, I would show a recent landscape of Munnar valley I made at sunrise in the hill town of Munnar in south-western India. It was shot at an elevation of about 6000 ft,  early morning at sunrise with ground mist. The trees are lit by golden light breaking through the morning mist. This image conveys mood, a feeling of place and draws the viewer’s attention.

Which area of photography best describes your work?
Landscape Photography

What first drew you to landscape photography, and what keeps pulling you back out into the field?
I enjoy travelling, and one has to travel if you want to shoot landscapes. India is a big country and has a lot to offer for a landscape photographer. We have a long coastline, deserts, rivers, valleys and mountains. The Himalayan range with its small towns and villages in the north has immense opportunities to create stunning images.

How much planning goes into one of your trips, and where do you deliberately leave room for chance?
A lot of planning is required. Not just in deciding the destination but also where to stay, a means of local travel in order to be able to explore, some idea of what to shoot together with the best time and month of the year.  It helps to connect with a local resident who knows the area. India has extremes of climate depending on where you are. It can go from over 50º C to ice and snow in the mountains. Sometimes weather is unpredictable. You have to take it as it comes.

When you arrive at a location, what do you look for before making your first photograph?
I am not in a hurry. My digital camera settings are preset, and I only have to decide on the shutter speed, f-stop, ISO and composition. Before I shoot, I have already surveyed the location and thought of the compositions I have in mind. If the light is right, this makes shooting faster and gives good images. I can then move on to the next location.

Which kind of light do you find yourself chasing, and why does it move you?
My best images are made early morning at sunrise or late afternoon before sunset. If it’s cloudy or misty, I would shoot for longer during the daytime, as this gives soft images with low contrast.

What turns a technically good landscape photograph into one people actually remember?
The mood and lighting. Capturing the moment to create one’s own interpretation of the landscape. This could include image manipulation, adding clouds or a texture. It is the result that matters.

What camera and lenses are at the heart of your kit right now, and what makes them right for the way you work?
My digital kit has two Fuji X-E3 bodies with 10~24mm, 18~55mm, 50~140mm Fuji lenses. I also have a vintage Nikon 105mm f4 macro lens with a Metabones adaptor to use on my Fuji. Additionally, a Fuji 2x Converter which gives me an effective focal length of 420mm on the zoom.

My analog kit is a pair of Rolleiflex 3.5F as well as  Hasselblad 500CM/503CW bodies with 50mm, 80mm, 180mm and 500mm Hasselblad Zeiss lenses. The analog kit is used only on a Carbon Fibre Manfrotto tripod for landscape, portrait or indoor use with studio flash or window light. It’s slow in comparison to digital, but the results have a different feel and look.

Which Film Simulation, colour profile or custom camera settings do you keep coming back to, and why do they suit the way you see?
I shoot RAW and sometimes RAW+JPEG. My film simulation is Fuji Velvia or my custom setting for Kodachrome. I use the RAW file much the way one would use a film negative. I can go back to it anytime and reprocess for a different look

What keeps you working with the Fuji X system, and what would you miss most if you switched away from it?
I would never switch from the Fuji system. The X-E3 suits me as it is very similar to using a manual film camera of the 90s. I particularly like the shutter speed dial and the exposure compensation on the top. They’re beautifully designed, and they have excellent lenses. I don’t often change my camera settings, and both bodies are set up identically. The compact body and light weight make it even more attractive.

Walk us through your editing workflow — which software do you use, and how much of the final image is made after the shutter closes?
My editing software is Affinity Photo, which is functionally similar to PS and comes at a fixed one-time cost for both Windows and Mac. I use a MacBook Air with 8 GB RAM. Backup is done twice to external Seagate hard disks of 5 TB each. The majority of post-processing is just standard RAW conversion using crop, straighten, contrast, brightness, highlight recovery and shadow sliders. I rarely find the need to change colour temperature. Fuji cameras give me very good auto balance. I save to PSD or 16-bit TIFF with very little sharpening. Final sharpening is done later if the file is used for printing or JPEG for my web page.

My creative images and composites use both Affinity and Topaz Studio to create the final image.

What are you usually trying to achieve in post-processing — and what do you deliberately leave untouched?
To bring out the best image from the data in the RAW file. To make the image draw the viewer into the landscape.

If you could leave a single piece of photographic wisdom for someone picking up a camera today, what would it be?
Learn good technique and don’t try to “fix it later” with software. It’s the photographer who creates the image and not the latest and greatest camera being advertised. My Rolleiflex film cameras are from the 1950s –  75 years old and made before I was born. They make great images.

Looking back, what is the most valuable lesson photography has taught you?
Photography is an art. Practice often and learn to “see”. Creativity comes with practice. Don’t try to copy some one elses work. It never looks the same. As my friend the late Mr Tan Lip Seng of Singapore used to tell me, “Be different and do good work. You will then stand out from the crowd”. He should know. He was ranked as the world’s number one exhibitor by the Photographic Society of America for several years.

Which single accessory could you not work without — and what would you lose without it?
My Carbon fibre Manfrotto tripod and ball head. It gives me stability and sharp images. Hand holding is not the same. You can see the difference in large prints.

How has your relationship with gear changed over the years, and what drove those changes?
I love the Fuji system, and I haven’t added to it for over 10 years. The Fuji 200mm f2 would be a great addition, but the price sadly is beyond reach.

What are you working on right now, and where can readers follow it?
I am reprocessing several old images dating back to my analog days, as well as early days of digital taken with a Nikon D100 – 6MP camera. Recent developments in software bring new life to old files, and I have made very good prints up to 36 inches wide from old 6 -12MP files.

My web page www.pbase.com/ashok_viswanathan has over 7500 images in folders and has seen over 1.5 million visitors.

I am also exploring ICM – Intentional Camera Movement, a technique to create images with motion blur that reminds you of a fine impressionist painting. The beauty of this technique is the wide variety of very pleasing results you get. I have also started exploring Audio Visual (AV) presentations where a series of still images on a topic are accompanied by music or speech, or both. Much like a short movie. My. first attempt in creating a 5-minute AV, “The dance of the Gods” won the Gold at the recent Photographic Society of America International Essay competition.

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