With fifteen chronically overworked freshmen in the background soullessly sorting snaps into envelopes, staring blankly into space once they’re done, the Department of Photography (DoPy) room in SAC is about as lively as an illegal garment factory in rural Bangladesh. Manasa Pudipeddi, DoPy APOGEE coord is curiously relaxed as we sit to talk, almost oblivious to the soft sobbing in the background.

‘Our primary job is of course to click, every fest. Apart from this we’ve also ventured into merchandising, with our DoPy diaries and calendars’, she begins. The department was founded in the late 1970s, when cameras weren’t as ubiquitous as they are now, and physical copies of photographs were the norm rather than the exception. ‘With the advent of smartphones, fest clicking is dying, we certainly recognize that. The department has thus shifted its core focus to merchandising, which we’ll gradually scale up in coming years’, she explains, gravely.

Interestingly, the department’s revenues every fest have more or less remained steady, despite the obvious competition with camera phones- The department made 2.5 lakh rupees last Oasis, and expects to generate more this APOGEE. Manasa ascribes that to the fact DoPy snaps have evolved to become a tradition among BITSians.

She clicks her fingers, and a junior crawls forward to kiss her ring, before scurrying to fetch drinks. ‘The work of a coordinator is sure intense, but there’s a lot of fun we have’, she explains, as memories of a riverside bonfire and flushed faces, swim hazily into one’s mind.

What are the challenges facing the department? ‘More than anything, it’s the task of motivating everyone in the department to keep showing up to work sessions, and to stay focused during fests’.

A past complaint would concern snaps delivered to the wrong rooms, and soft copies mailed too late (sometimes never). Manasa’s quick to concede as much. From this APOGEE however, DoPy will send pictures online before physical deliveries. This will allow BITSians to mail the department informing them of specific missing pictures- which will again be printed at no extra cost.

As our interview concludes, she hollers, and a cart yoked to four sturdy DoPyites crawls forward. She administers a few kicks and is off, as strains of ‘We Shall Overcome’ is heard in the distance.