From UN to tigers, a tale of many frozen moments

What would you do if you got a call from Michael Jackson asking you to work with him? Would you hang up thinking it is a prank? John Isaac, a former photojournalist with the UN, did just that.
Isaac went on to tour with Jackson, even shooting exclusive pictures of his first born, Prince. “MJ was a very misunderstood man,” said Isaac. He was in the city as the brand ambassador of camera maker Olympus, with whom he is working on a project about tigers.

Isaac, now 66, has been shooting photographs since four decades; starting out as a darkroom assistant, moving onto photojournalism, and then to teaching. “In these 40 years, I followed one paradigm: it is important to reveal the truth to the last detail, but not at the cost of the dignity of the human being.” It was this philosophy that led him to reject opportunities to take probable prize-winning pictures just for the sake of sensationalism.

From the Sarajevo war and the killing fields of Cambodia, to the Rwandan genocide, Isaac has covered them all. However, the 20 years of documenting the tragedies in people’s lives took its toll and he suffered a nervous breakdown in 1995. “It was then that I decided to retire as I was taking my job too personally and it was affecting me a lot,” he said.

Born in Trichy to parents who were teachers, Isaac’s early goal was to become a folk singer. In fact, when he started out in New York, he used to sing on the streets. “A lady who worked at the UN heard me sing and wanted me to join her choral group.” With his visa running out, Isaac agreed on the condition of a job at the UN. Isaac began his career with the UN as a messenger boy, and retired, in 1998, as its director of photography.

Isaac has met and photographed people like Audrey Hepburn, Mother Theresa, Nelson Mandela and Indira Gandhi. Teaching is his now his foremost passion, conducting workshops and training students, not only on photography but also on how to be a better human being. “We need to recognise happiness in the small things we do every day,” is his constant refrain.

“I have visited over a 100 countries, but none can match the beauty of Kashmir,” said Isaac. He has recently released a coffee-table book on Kashmir — The Vale of Kashmir.