My Science School

The country's first ever woman photojournalist, Homai was a trendsetter who lived by her own rules. The only woman in a field peopled by men, there has hardly been a newsworthy event that has not been captured by her lens. And scarcely any political heavyweight in India who has remained untouched by her camera-be it Mahatma Gandhi, S Radhakrishnan, Sardar Patel or Pandit Nehru, one of her most favourite subjects.

Born in Navsari in 1913 to parents who were part of a travelling Parsi-Urdu theatre company, Homai's first few years were spent travelling with the company until her mother decided to settle in Mumbai so that the children could get a decent schooling.

When she met and married Manekshaw, her husband was working with The Times of India doing accounts. But his passion was photography and he indulged it in his spare time. Most of his photos were accepted by the Times and The Illustrated Weekly of India. It was here that Homai's interest in photography was first kindled. She began to use her husband's Rolleiflex, which was presented to him by a friend. Much later, she also used the Speedgraphic (also called Pacemaker). "These two cameras were used by photojournalists all over the world," Homai explains.

Homai says she made it a point to always be formally dressed whenever she was on assignment.

"Much, much later, after I had torn too many sarees with other photographers stepping on them that I began to wear salwar kameezes," she explains. The decision to dress formally was as deliberate as the decision to stay aloof from the subjects she was photographing. "I always did my work and moved out. In fact, many times I did not even greet my subjects. I knew I was working in a man's world in an orthodox society. So I developed this 'stern' persona so nobody got any wrong signals." However, she was certainly recognised by most people she photographed. Once she had to travel out of Delhi to photograph Pandit Nehru at an official engagement. "He saw me and asked, 'Tum yahaan bhi aa gayi?' she laughs.

Since most of her snapshots caught her subjects in candid moments and exuded warmth, many people felt that she must have been on very friendly terms with the high and mighty. Nothing could have been further from the truth! Also, could she solve this engaging mystery about the phrase 'Dalda tin' that had become part of her professional identity? She laughs heartily, "That was a misinterpretation by Monica Becker, who has made a documentary on me. My Fiat's license number was DLD 13 that sounded like Dalda tin and the phrase just stuck to me." After 30 years of snap shooting, Homai decided to call it a day in 1970. She packed away her cameras, put away a vast collection of negatives and prints and has never clicked a photograph since. Why this dramatic decision? "The atmosphere had changed considerably," she explains. 

Credit : India Today 

Picture Credit : Google

Homai Vyarwalla, India’s first woman photojournalist was best known for documenting the country’s transition from a British colony into an independent nation. Her iconic photographs include the first flag hoisting ceremony at the Red Fort in 1947, Lord Mountbatten and his wife taking the final salute at Rashtrapati Bhavan before returning to England, and the funerals of Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and Lal Bahadur Shastri.

She received her first assignment - to photograph a picnic - while she was still in college. It was published by a local newspaper, and soon she started to pick up more freelance assignments.

She began to draw more attention after her photographs of life in Mumbai were published in The Illustrated Weekly of India magazine.

The Vyarawallas moved to Delhi in 1942 after they were hired to work as photographers for the British Information Service.

Ms Vyarawalla, one of few female photojournalists working at the time in Delhi, was often seen cycling through the capital with her camera strapped to her back.

Credit : BBC 

Picture Credit : Google

Italian Johannes Stoetter is bodypainter whose nature inspired paintings featuring hidden humans will make you do a double take.

Stotter said the idea for the project started as a coincidence. He was working on another series when the model's leg reminded him of a frog's leg, so he decided to create a whole frog out of people. Stotter then created a video for the illusion to demonstrate how the frog actually consists of five models covered in body paint. 

The process begins with Stotter having models pose in different positions. He then sketches what he expects the final image to look like. It then takes him a whole week to paint the background. Next, Stotter body paints the animals on his models, which could take anywhere from two to 10 hours. Once the background and models are painted, he takes around 100 photos to get the perfect shot.

Credit : Insider 

Picture Credit : Google

Uruguyan President Jose Mujica is described as "the world's poorest president", as he donates around 90 per cent of his $12,000 monthly salary to charities to benefit poor people and small entrepreneurs.

Elected in 2009, Mujica spent the 1960s and 1970s as part of the Uruguayan guerrilla Tupamaros, a leftist armed group inspired by the Cuban revolution.

He was shot six times and spent 14 years in jail. Most of his detention was spent in harsh conditions and isolation, until he was freed in 1985 when Uruguay returned to democracy.

Mujica accuses most world leaders of having a "blind obsession to achieve growth with consumption, as if the contrary would mean the end of the world".

But however large the gulf between the vegetarian Mujica and these other leaders, he is no more immune than they are to the ups and downs of political life.

Credit : BBC News 

Picture Credit : Google 

In 1918, during World War I, Walt Disney attempted to enlist for military service but was rejected because he was underage, only sixteen years old. Instead, Walt joined the Red Cross and was sent overseas to France, where he spent a year driving an ambulance and chauffeuring Red Cross officials. His ambulance was covered not with camouflage, but with his cartoon drawings!

Disney was first billeted in a chateau in St. Cyr. Later, he transferred to Evacuation Hospital Number 5 near Paris, where his duties included being a driver and mechanic for Red Cross supply trucks and providing taxi service for army officers.

He also served at a Red Cross canteen at Neufchateau in the French countryside.  His duties included driving Alice Howell, a Red Cross canteen worker, to various base hospitals to deliver doughnuts and ice cream to patients. The two became friends and a few years later when one of Howell’s colleagues was visiting the Disney studios, he asked about her and renewed their acquaintance by sending her a Mickey Mouse doll the following Christmas.

Credit : American Red Cross 

Picture Credit : Google

American astronaut Steven R. Swanson is the first astronaut residing in the International Space Station to take and post the first Instagram photo from outer space, and that photo, naturally, is a selfie. Swanson accompanied the space selfie with the caption, "Back on ISS, life is good."

The image, posted to the official ISS Instagram account is—befitting of our times—a selfie. The photo shows American astronaut Steven R. Swanson in the station’s scenic seven-window observatory module. Swanson, who has flown one previous mission to the station, captioned the photo with, “Back on ISS, life is good.” Obviously, no filter was needed.

Swanson launched with two Russian cosmonauts, Aleksandr Skvortsov, and Oleg Artemyev, on March 25 aboard a Soyuz spacecraft, becoming the 39th crew to journey to the station. Expedition 39 started the Instagram account back in January as a way of documenting the last few months of their training and preparation.

In recent years, NASA and the ISS program have garnered a lot of public attention from savvy social media use. In 2009, astronaut Mike Massimino became the first person to Tweet from space. Massimino has since attracted more than 1.28 million Twitter followers. And if the backdrop of the first space Instagram looks familiar, that’s because it was one of backdrops used Chris Hadfield’s “Space Oddity” music video last year. The video, shot aboard the ISS, became a viral sensation garnering more than 21 million views on YouTube.

Credit : Daily Dot

Picture Credit : Google