Rajan is a shutterbug; captivatingly evolved beyond his time. Although officially a freelance producer and photojournalist, with his own UK Company Firefly, his many multimedia projects amount to much more than this. Using high-resolution, motion stills and videos, Rajan brings to you visceral, interactive experiences that tell of social injustice and otherwise neglected cultural perspectives. Currently based in Delhi, Rajan’s recent work has included creating a Virtual Police Station, which has been adopted by several Indian states to use in police training institutes, as well as allowing the public to navigate their way around the signature beige and bureaucracy of the establishment. He also created a stunning exploratory documentary of the Bawana JJ Colony: a relocation slum where many of the families were forced out of their original shanty town dwellings, as part of a government initiative to pave the way for the 2010 Commonwealth Games. The photographer’s 360 degree landscape allows you to inhabit the conditions of the slum and click on video footage of different women who speak out about the effects of their geographic isolation. This includes facing domestic violence due to lack of work, having been transplanted two hours from the city centre, and living with horrific substandard sanitation.
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At first then it is tempting to put Rajan in that twilight space between artistry and fact. Neither a journalist nor a visual creator, he must really be both. But this is a gross simplification. As Rajan himself stated: “it’s about the tangible power of the pieces. That’s what’s so intriguing: allowing people to access the atmosphere and moving them to take action. It’s not just some inert text on paper they’re seeing, or another repetitive ad about African children on TV”. What his work essentially does is accentuate reality – bringing to life all the colour and texture of international landscapes – and this surely constitutes a new business altogether: “I’ve had my work published with notable papers such as ‘The Guardian’, ‘Al Jazeera’ and ‘The Wall Street Journal,” Rajan added, ‘but there is still some digital reporting that gets turned down. I know it is difficult to integrate all the currently separate media departments at big papers, but I do feel digital integration is an approach worth pursuing – allocate someone to take charge of new technology if needs be. It could be a question of die or diversify. People do tend to become desensitised and more could be done to bridge that gap between knowing news and affecting the change that is needed. ” In the meantime, Rajan has found his virtual niche with NGOs and charities who openly invite his inspiring, interactives: “I work with a wonderful NGO called Nazdeek who raise awareness about the exploitation of the tea workers in Assam. People have the option to donate money once they’ve taken the virtual tour.” A grounded yet free spirit, Rajan embodies advancement in the wider, professional world.
