The ‘half negative’ and other graphic memories of legendary Kashmiri photojournalist Meraj Ud Din

“Maine kya kya nahi dekha?” What haven’t I seen? “I saw all of Lal Chowk burning. Sometimes dead bodies piled up in front of my eyes.”

Meraj Ud Din is usually soft-spoken. But as Kashmir’s legendary photojournalist and videographer unspooled decades of graphic memories, his voice took on dramatic intensity.

I had been graciously received into his home, even though his son Umar – also a videographer – had recently returned from hospital with a broken leg, an injury suffered in the frenetic action to cover a gunbattle. The conversation unfolded through a mellow afternoon, interspersed by the inevitable rolling out of the dastarkhani for a tea break.

I was struck both by the 64-year-old photographer’s wealth of experience and his rich archive of images. It was a poignant reminder of the vital role Meraj and his photojournalist colleagues play in bearing witness as members of the Kashmiri community in turbulent times and extremely complex socio-political situations.

Sometimes his entanglement with events was so tight that the photographer himself became the story. Meraj recalled one occasion when he was called to cover a parade by a tanzim, or militant outfit, and then locked up in a room because they claimed that the newspaper for which...

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