JavaScript is disabled in your web browser or browser is too old to support JavaScript. Today almost all web pages contain JavaScript, a scripting programming language that runs on visitor's web browser. It makes web pages functional for specific purposes and if disabled for some reason, the content or the functionality of the web page can be limited or unavailable.

Monday, June 16, 2025

Painting pictures without paint

by

20090718
Breathtaking view of Avocar 
Waterfalls in Blanchisseuse.

Breathtaking view of Avocar Waterfalls in Blanchisseuse.

Colours of Uni­ty show­cas­es Trinidad and To­ba­go's beau­ty, splen­dour and mag­nif­i­cence in pic­ture form. Edi­son Boodoos­ingh, Guardian free­lance pho­tog­ra­ph­er, is the mas­ter­mind be­hind that com­po­si­tion of pho­tographs fea­tur­ing beach­es, fes­ti­vals, beau­ty, ar­chi­tec­ture, na­ture and much more.

Speak­ing in a re­cent in­ter­view about his first pub­lished pic­to­r­i­al, Boodoos­ingh said, "I want­ed to show the dif­fer­ent as­pects of Tri­ni cul­ture; not on­ly Car­ni­val, but Di­vali and Phag­wa, which re­flect the var­i­ous cul­tures that make up T&T." The cov­er of the pic­to­r­i­al de­picts sev­er­al colours of "abeer" in pow­der form used in the Hin­du fes­ti­val called Holi

or Phag­wa. But Boodoos­ingh said be­sides the fes­ti­val of Phag­wa, the cov­er re­flect­ed the mul­ti-cul­tur­al and eth­nic races in the coun­try. Speak­ing about the colours on the cov­er, Boodoos­ingh said each brought for­ward its own beau­ty, just like each eth­nic­i­ty.

Boodoos­ingh be­gan pho­tog­ra­phy about 12 years ago, af­ter he said he be­came bored as a clerk in the Min­istry of Le­gal Af­fairs. Want­i­ng to ful­fil a de­sire, he trav­elled abroad and pur­sued a course in com­mer­cial pho­tog­ra­phy. "I am al­ways one to fan­ta­sise over im­ages," he said. "I chose pho­tog­ra­phy be­cause I was al­ways in­ter­est­ed in im­ages, graph­ics and art, and since I couldn't paint, the next log­i­cal step was pho­tog­ra­phy, where you can still use ideas of com­po­si­tion and light to cre­ate some­thing artis­tic like a paint­ing, but with­out the paint." Boodoos­ingh joined the Guardian in 1998, and re­called his first as­sign­ment by then pho­to ed­i­tor, Robert Saun­ders. "I just walked in and asked to speak to the pho­to ed­i­tor, Robert Saun­ders. It was im­promp­tu. He gave me a roll of film and sent me to shoot Vie la Cou. It was around Car­ni­val."

Saun­ders liked what he saw when Boodoos­ingh re­turned, and used a pho­to in the news­pa­per. "It was from there I start­ed," Boodoos­ingh said. "This book [Colours of Uni­ty] was com­piled over a three-year pe­ri­od, us­ing a dig­i­tal cam­era," ?Boodoos­ingh said point­ing to the pic­to­r­i­al. He took pho­tos of his per­son­al places of in­ter­est and said he was keen to dis­play his im­ages to peo­ple who might not be aware that such places ex­ist in T&T. The pic­to­r­i­al fea­tures 50 pho­tos of beach­es, wa­ter­falls, re­li­gious stat­ues, places of wor­ship, ma­jor fes­ti­vals like Car­ni­val, Di­vali, Phag­wa, blue dev­ils, the en­dan­gered leatherback tur­tle, the Port-of-Spain Wa­ter­front and the beau­ti­ful face of Gabriel Wal­cott, Miss T&T World.

"A pho­tog­ra­ph­er tries to make the or­di­nary look ex­tra­or­di­nary, or dif­fer­ent. He tries to cap­ture a mo­ment in time, ex­pres­sions, move­ment and colour," said Boodoos­ingh, who lives in Tu­na­puna. He has trav­elled to Italy, Spain, Thai­land, Cam­bo­dia, Egypt, Pe­ru, Venezuela,and the Caribbean is­lands. But his favourite places to take pho­tographs are Italy and Spain. "I love the an­cient his­to­ry and their ar­chi­tec­ture."

Be­hind cam­era

Boodoos­ingh said when he was younger, he want­ed to be­come a gui­tarist. These days, he just en­joys be­ing be­hind the cam­era, al­ways on the look­out for some­thing unique about T&T. "Pho­tog­ra­phy is more of a pas­sion for me; mon­ey is not im­por­tant." So what's his ad­vice to as­pir­ing pho­tog­ra­phers?

"Pick up the cam­era and be­gin shoot­ing." He said for peo­ple who had an artis­tic in­cli­na­tion, but didn't have the abil­i­ty to draw or paint, pho­tog­ra­phy was a good way to de­vel­op those abil­i­ties.


Related articles

Sponsored

Weather

PORT OF SPAIN WEATHER

Sponsored