Srashti Jain: clicking young

NK SINGH

At an age when girls would be more interested in playing with dolls, Srashti Jain started toying with a camera. She shot her first picture when she was just five years old. 

And now, two years and 5,000 photographs later, the little girl from Bhopal is recognised as an accomplished photographer.  

Says S.K. Mawal, head of the Photography Department at Bhopal's Prachya Niketan College: "Srashti's compositions are perfect and the choice of subjects is very mature for a girl of her age." 

A second standard student, Srashti easily handles the technical side of her craft - loading and unloading films, setting exposure and focus, using various lenses and even developing her own films. 

But for making prints, she needs the help of her father, S.K.D. Jain, a medical doctor, to operate the enlarger. 

What is striking is her self-confidence. With the camera and at large gatherings. In Bhopal, people have become used to the little girl even covering political meetings. 

In September 1990, when she was just six, Srashti went to Delhi and covered a SAARC function where she vied with seasoned press photographers. Says she of her fellow lensmen: "They jostled me. The security people were also not very nice."  

That experience led her to avoid covering political functions. Also because as she says: "Politicians speak so much and it becomes boring." 

She concentrates on portraits and human interest subjects. Unfortunately, Srashti cannot participate in competitions as most have a minimum age limit. 

Srashti finds photography easier than her homework. But she is not enamoured of her talent. 

Says she: "I like photography but I would like to become a doctor like my father when I grow up."

India Today, 15 January 1992

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