Mar 09, 2019

Grayscale Academy - A Beginning of a Dream and a Reality

I have been teaching photography with a few institutes in and around Delhi, for over a decade and a half. I was happy with the fact that all was set up for me and all I had to do was go and lecture. It was a very convenient way to remain a faculty, who had to invest only in one's knowledge and communication skill to reach out to the many interested, or sometimes uninterested students in these various schools that taught photography, various forms of design and visual communication. You go there, share your knowledge, guide and get your fee. 

What made a photographer and a teacher, who is not a businessman to decide to run a school of his own? Why decide to take this burden of a financial investment, when there are many with a deeper pocket, ready to invest in education because there is a possibility of immense return? Am I looking at a larger return or am I looking at some kind of professional satisfaction, which I have always searched for as a self-employed professional? A question even I would ask myself. And why not? Do I not also have the right to make money like so many businessmen, who see life only as a profit and loss statement? 

The question was never only about how much I invest and what I get in return. As a professional photographer, my investment in money might be lesser, but my commitment to the medium of my work is equally important as over the years I realised that " All that Glitters is not Gold ". Education is a very serious business and not just a business. Yet I need to survive in this very tough and cutthroat world, where glitter is easier to sell than substance. 

Am I capable of giving substance? How can I contribute to someone, who is a client or a customer? They want what they want, and they want it now.

Dreams are easier to sell, but not reality. The reality will always come to you when the dream is over. 

I have dealt with both simultaneously as a learner, practitioner and teacher. 

Grayscale Academy for me is another dream and reality together. 

Sandeep Biswas ( Founder and faculty )