‘Aimed to make viewer crave for these kebabs’: Kolkata photographer wins international contest for pic of Kashmiri vendor
It’s difficult to resist the mouthwatering dishes rustled up by roadside chefs when it comes to street food. Have you ever had a similar desire after only seeing a photograph? Many people on the internet are doing just that right now, drooling over a viral photo of a Kashmiri kebab vendor. Furthermore, it has won first place in a prestigious international food photography competition.
The stunning photograph, taken by Kolkata-based photographer Debdatta Chakraborty, shows a young vendor preparing the sizzling kebabs on a fiery grill. The man is basting the skewers while standing at a small street stall engulfed in smoke. After Chakraborty was named the overall winner of Pink Lady Food Photographer of the Year 2022, the image titled “Kebabiyana” went viral.
The 46-year-old amateur photographer said the award-winning photograph was taken last year in Srinagar’s famous Khayyam Chowk. “It was taken on Valentine’s Day,” the man said in an email interview with indianexpress.com.
Chakraborty was chosen by a jury in the prestigious contest, which has been running for over a decade and receives thousands of entries each year. He won the major prize after defeating entries from 60 countries around the world, and while he is ecstatic, he admits that the outcome was unexpected.
“It’s difficult to predict the outcome of large photo contests like Pink Lady, where the quality of the submitted photos is extremely high. Even if I am a finalist, my chances of winning the grand prize are always slim because I am competing against the best of the best,” he explained.
Finalists for 27 categories were chosen recently, and winners were announced in a live streamed event on the competition’s YouTube channel. Caroline Kenyon, the awards’ founder and director, said of Chakraborty’s image to the BBC: “This image, gentle but powerful, nourishes our soul.”
“The beautifully captured billowing embrace of the smoke, the golden light, the subject’s expression as he prepares the food for sharing,” Kenyon added.
Kenyon described the image as allowing viewers to almost smell the “delicious aroma” emanating from the juicy meat. That is precisely why Chakraborty chose it for the competition. “Since I’m an amateur, I have no professional bindings and indulge myself sometimes in portraits, sometimes in travel, sometimes in architecture,” the photographer, who doesn’t want to limit himself to any particular genre, said.
Aside from the prize money, The Royal Photographic Society in Bristol will host an exhibition of the finalists’ work at the end of the year. “It’s definitely a dream come true,” he said about the exciting opportunity.
Picture Courtesy: Twitter (@BenTipple)/Images are subject to copyright
