A Rare Kind of Joy and Innocence

“I was walking around when I noticed these kids taking a bath. It was their laughter and innocence, which caught my attention” – Raghu Ranjan Sarkar

When 50-year-old Raghu Ranjan Sarkar’s image won in the Open – People category of the Sony World Photography Awards this year, he could not believe it. Raghu, who is a science graduate from the University of Calcutta, is a Superintendent of Customs and Excise based in West Bengal. Being an hobbyist photographer, his interest in the fi eld of photography started only five years ago.
In this winning image, Raghu has managed to capture a group of small boys taking a bath. The photograph was taken in Titagarh, a small village on the outskirts of Barrackpore in West Bengal. “I was walking around when I noticed these kids taking a bath. It was their laughter and the innocence in them which caught my attention,” says Raghu. He wanted to bring out the mood of the kids in the photograph. “I think that after seeing the picture, you would agree with me on that.” He believes that such kind of joy and innocence is rare these days.

-Written by Chandni Gajria