Most Beautiful Experiences

What makes some memories so special, that we can't forget them, even after decades? I was thinking about my memories of my most unforgettable evenings and wondering about what had made them so special.

In this post, I want to talk about 5 of my most unforgettable evenings and what made them special.

An Evening at the Taj Mahal, India

Talking about a beautiful evening at the Taj Mahal is a cliché, but since it was one the most incredible evenings that I had ever had, I decided to start with it. I had been to Taj in Agra a few times, the first time in 1967 on a school trip. This particular visit was in 2012, when I was in Agra for a conference. One afternoon, as I came out of a tiring meeting, I decided to walk and ended up at Taj Mahal. When I reached, the sky was already turning pink.

It was still crowded and I decided to sit down on a bench on one side, to wait for the evening. Slowly the crowd thinned and it became quieter. There was an azaan, I think from the mosque on the side of Taj or may be from outside. In that quiet, listening to that azaan and watching the silhouette of the familiar shape of the monument against the darkening sky, it was absolutely divine. It was the combination of beauty, colours and the music/sounds which made this evening so special.

The Uvs lake in Mongolia

I have also been to Mongolia many times. This particular evening was in 2008. We had travelled in a jeep from Bayan Ulgii to Uvs in the extreme west of Mongolia. In Uvs, I had one incredible afternoon in the stadium in Ulaangom where a Buddhist lama had led a special session of prayers.

One afternoon, after we finished our meetings, my friends accompanied me to Uvs lake, about 60 kms away from Ulaangom. The lake forms the border between Russia and Mongolia, which means that the mountains you can see in the image below on the other side of the lake were in Russia.

It was cloudy and windy that day. The contrast between light and dark shades of the dry grass, land, lake water and the snow covered mountains was very striking. A row of white round gers (tents) for the tourists, stood out. There were noisy seagulls and black and white lapwings. There, a few of my Mongolian friends sang polyphonic songs, which is a special Mongolian skill. The singers can simultaneously make multiple sounds, some in a wonderful bass and others, more acute.

The colours of the nature, the wind and clouds, the cries of seagulls and the polyphonic sounds of the Mongolian songs, together created something unique, which made that evening unforgettable for me. Even now, when I listen to polyphonic music from Mongolia, I remember that evening along the lake. If you have never heard a Mongolian polyphonic song, take a few minutes to listen to one on Youtube.

Pasubio Mountain, Veneto, Italy

Pasubio is the dolomite mountain of Schio, the little town in the north-east of Italy where we now live. Its highest peak is at more than 2,200 metres. From our home, a 20-25 minutes drive takes us to the mountain pass known as Pian delle Fugazze, at a little less than 1,200 metres. This was the border between Italy and Austria where the First World War battles had taken place. Hundreds of young men from different parts of Italy, but specially from all the towns of our region, had died here. At this mountain pass, visible from miles all around, is an Ossario, where bodily remains of those young men are kept.

We often go to the Ossario of Pasubio (in the image below). There are may mountain paths marked by the Italian Alpine association, where you can go for trekking. There is a hanging bridge there, about 2 km away, which makes for a nice walk. The evening at Pasubio which I remember is from a visit in 2012 evening. It was December and very cold. There had been different snowfalls, but on that day the sky was clear.

Soon after we arrived, the sky turned pink and orange, lighting up the snow with a strange glow. The moon was already out, not yet a full moon, but still glowing nicely. There was no one else at Ossario, just I and my wife. We stood there admiring the beautiful views till it turned dark. I think that it was special because we were alone and surrounded by incredible beauty.

An Evening in the Petrified Forest, New Mexico, USA

In 2018, I went on a road trip with my sister and one of her friends, in USA. We started from Santa Fe and finished our journey in Phoenix, visiting places like Grand Canyon and Sedona on the way. There is just a 2 years gap between I and my sister and I have a level of comfort with her, which is different from all other relationships. For much of our adult lives, we meet once in a while, usually with our families. Only now, with our children grown up, we can meet without our families and spend our time talking, as we used to do in our childhood.

That road-trip gave some wonderful memories, one of which was an evening spent in the Painted Desert and Petrified Forest. The beautiful shades of the earth, the amazing landscapes and our constant bickering (which sometimes irritated my sister's friend), made it a wonderful evening.

Baja beach on Tapajos river in Amazon region, Brazil

I have also been to Brazil many times, most recently in 2019 when I had a wonderful visit in Rio de Janeiro. However, my special evening memory is once again from 2012. I was with my friend and colleague Deo, and we were visiting a project in Abaetetuba town in Para state in the north-east of Brazil. One evening, we went to a shack on the Baja beach on the Tapejos river, a few kilometres away. We had some beer, and while Deo chatted with some friends, I wandered alone.

Tapejos is a huge river, its other shore was probably a few kilometres away. It changes with the sea tides of Atlantic ocean. The retreating high tide had left its marks on the sand. A group of children was playing football. Strips of land alternating with streams of water, created a wonderful background.

I walked to the edge of the river. A few families with children were there, including a man with a baby boy, who had parked his motorbike and was playing with the child in the water. Slowly the sun went down the sky turned yellow and orange. As I walked back to the beer shack, the man and the baby boy left on their motorbike. The river, the colours, the families chattering, it all created something magical.

Conclusions

I love writing posts like this, which give me an opportunity to revisit forgotten journeys and to remember places and persons, some of whom are no longer alive. I hope that you have also enjoyed this journey, and that it has made you remember some special moments from your own life.

Writing such posts is also about understanding ourselves and our desires. I have hundreds of beautiful pictures of sunsets. Why did I choose these five? Thinking about it, makes me understand myself - what is important for me, and what touches me deeply. I that it is a way of meditating or may be a way of more mindful-living.

Because of smart-phones, most of us have hundreds or even thousands of pictures. Try to make them count - think which pictures matter to you and why? It will help you to learn about yourself.

I think that many factors contribute to making some memories special for us - 

(1) Beauty or aesthetic pleasure is an part of it.

(2) The persons who are with me contribute to making it special.

(3) A dash of music or art can also contribute to it.

(4) Possibility of remembering it through photographs or a diary or talking about it with friends

What makes some moments of your life unforgettable for you?

*****

Museo - The Camera Museum of Gurgaon

Museo, the camera museum of Gurgaon in NCR (India) is a vibrant cultural space in a rapidly growing urban area, which needs many more such spaces. An initiative of the well known photographer Aditya Arya, who is passionate about photography conservation, restoration and archiving, it formally belongs to the India Photo Archive Foundation. (Image: Aditya Arya in the lobby of Museo)

During my last visit to India in late 2022, most of the time I was unwell and bed-ridden. The highlight of this stay was a visit to Museo during which I had a brief encounter with Aditya.

This visit to Museo was also an opportunity to visit and on-going art exhibition organised by Oxygen Art Guild and curated by Tarun Das. I was lucky to meet and speak to Tarun as well.

Thus, this post is about both Museo Camera Museum and the Oxygen Art Guild exhibition. I am not going to repeat the information about the backgrounds of Museo museum, Aditya Arya and Oxygen Art Guild , you can check those on their respective websites. This post is mostly about the things which had especially struck me during this visit. Before I start, I would also like to recommend you to check the different old-pics collections at the Aditya Arya Photo Archives website.

Museo Location

Museo is located off a small road in front of the Galleria market (DLF phase 3, Nathupur) in downtown Gurgaon. The nearest Delhi Metro stations are IFFCO Chowk and HUDA City Centre, from where you can take an auto or a cab to reach Museo. It has sufficient parking space but its location on a narrow and busy road can be tricky to navigate.

If you are visiting Gurgaon and are wondering about places to visit, do visit and spend some time in Museo.

Museo Activities

Museo is a vibrant cultural space with some permanent exhibitions and areas for temporary exhibitions. Photography is encouraged in all the museum spaces.

For example, it has weekend classes on photography (and other cultural activities such as dance classes) including the one year photography diploma course as well as different workshops (when I visited, there were posters of workshops about cyanotype, film and analog photography, salt print process, environmental portraits by Sundeep Bali and street photography).

There were also some on-going exhibitions, about which I have written below and there was a live music performance by Ruchika and Deepak Castelino. The ground floor of the museo building has the camera museum while upstairs are the different exhibition and workshop spaces.

Camera Installations

There were some installations made out of old cameras or in which cameras played a significant role scattered around in the building.

One striking installation was the "Hug Me" man by the well known Gurgaon artist Gopal Namjoshi made from junk metal and old analog cameras. Namjoshi is known for his monumental installations in which often junk metals play an important role.

Another installation which I liked, had a mannequin surrounded by all kinds of carrying bags for the old analog cameras. (Image below has the 2 installations - the Hug Me man and the camera-bags)

The third camera installation which particularly struck me was the inverted pyramid handing above the central gallery. There were also some big old cameras from early 20th century.

Temporary Exhibitions

Among the temporary exhibitions, I especially loved "Nirvasanama", which documented the life in exile of Dev Shumsher (1862-1914), the "liberal" Prime Minister of Nepal, who was exiled in India in early 20th century.

Colours of Convergence

In the art exhibition "Colours of Convergence" organised by Oxygen Art Guild and curated by Tarun Das I liked the works of -  watercolors by Sudhangsu Bandopadhyay, woodcut on paper by Jintu Mohan Kalita, oil painting by Aniruddha Mukherjee, acrylic on canvas by Apurba Karati and very especially the Cityscapes of cows by Jiban Biswas.

Last year, I had met Valeria Bertesina, an artist who curates the Paper Art Biennale in Schio and that had been my introduction to understanding the meaning of "curating art exhibitions". In Museo, I had an opportunity to talk to Tarun Das (in the image below), who had curated the exhibition "Colours of Convergence", which was another opportunity to reflect on the different ways in which individuals can "curate" exhibitions, imprinting it with their dialogues with the artists in selecting and deciding what gets exhibited and how.

 

Vintage Analogic World

As we go deeper into the digital world, it is not just analog cameras and photographic prints which are disappearing but the whole world is changing. This nostalgia for the disappearing world is represented in Museo by a painted ambassador car, an old lambretta scooter, a biscope and a colourful three-wheeler.

Sculptures in Museo

There are  also a few sculptures scattered in the open area surrounding the Museo, which are worth looking at. These include 2 sculptures of boys reading a book.

In the End

Except for the malls, which have a primary commercial purpose, Gurgaon has only a few cultural spaces. Another such local cultural space is the Sanskriti Museum.

I hope that the next time you are in Gurgaon and are wondering about places to visit and things to do, you can visit the Museo Camera Museum! 

World seen from the eyes of an eagle

We can't fly like eagles but we can see the world from the eyes of an eagle from an airplane. Seen from above, even the familiar can look different - a new point of view.

My work took me to different parts of the world. This post is about some special memories related to air-journeys. It is accompanied with some of my favourite pictures clicked from airplanes. The first image of this post (below) is of old Italian rural houses with fields, trees and towers. It was clicked close to the Fiumicino airport of Rome in Italy.

Flying from Kunming to Bejing (China)

One of my most thrilling air journey was in China in 1989. It was the end of May and we had taken a flight from Kunming to Beijing. On the way our plane had problems and we were forced to land in Xian. As we went to a hotel in Xian, we passed a big protest march in the city. A leader called Hu Yaobang, who was very popular with students, had died. Two days later, our plane was repaired and we reached Beijing. As we crossed Tianamen square, we saw groups of people protesting there. We were told that these were student protests.

On 3rd June, I left Beijing and flew to Orlando in USA. In the hotel I was shocked when I saw the news about the tanks in Tianamen square. It was also a close brush with an event whose echoes had reverberated all over the world. Except for a couple of pictures of students in the Tienamen square, I didn't take many pictures during that fateful journey - I regreted it afterwards.

The image above shows a river near Beijing airport in China, it was clicked many years later.

Journey from Delhi to Guwahati (India)

The next couple of images are near the Guwahati airport. The first shows Brahmaputra river and the Saraighat bridge. On the right side of the river, you can see Neelachal hill that hosts the famous Kamakhaya temple. On the left side you can see the IIT Guwahati campus and in the middle of the river, the tiny island with the Umananda temple.

The next image is also clicked near Guwahati and shows a vast area covered by the Brahmaputra floods.

Journey from Santarem to Belem (Brazil)

The next two images are from north-east of Brazil. The first is from Santarem. You can see Avenida Tapajos along the Tapajos river and the famous Metropolitan Cathedral of Our Lady of Conception painted in light blue colour.

The second image was clicked closer to Belem and shows one of the mighty strands of Amazon river going towards Atlantic ocean.

A sunset in Amsterdam (Netherlands)

The next image has one of most glorious sunsets that I ever saw during a flight. It was clicked as our plane was getting ready to land at the Amsterdam airport.

Houses - Capetown (South Africa) and Georgetown (Guayna)

It is a pleasure to look down from the plane and see the tiny houses, cars and people as they go about their lives. This image has houses near the Cape Town airport.

Houses are the subject of the next image as well. George Town, the capital of Guyana is criss-crossed with canals. This image was taken as our tiny plane had taken off from the city airport. In the distance you can see the Atlantic ocean.

Como lake (Italy)

The next image of this post is of Como lake in northern Italy, near the Alps mountains and  near the border with Switzerland.

Como is the most famous city situated along the banks of this lake where many rich and famous persons including George Clooney, Madonna and Sylvestor Stallone have their holiday homes. The Y-shaped lake is one of the deepest lakes in Europe.

Cristo Rei Sanctuary, Almada (Portugal)

The next image is from Almada in Portugal. In it you can see the Christ King sanctuary near the 25 April bridge which crosses over the sea and connects Almada to Lisbon.

Snow-covered Mountains - Alps and Himalaya

Flying over snow-covered mountains on a clear day is a special joy. While crossing the Alps, I remember different journeys when it was impossible not to gaze wonder-struck at the beautiful panoramas. The image below of the snow-covered Alps is from one such journey.

In Nepal, I never had good views of the snow covered Himalayas. However, during one journey, for a short time we saw Everest, as the peak appeared above the clouds. The next image has a picture of the Kunchanjanga peak.

 A carpet of colourful fields in East Europe

The next image was clicked while travelling from Vienna in Austria to Prague in Czech republic. I was fascinated by the neat fields with some of them in bright yellow (due to some flowers), that looked like a beautiful carpet.

Highway in Bologna (Italy)

I want to close this post with an image of Bologna. For three decades, we lived in Bologna, close to the airport. Sometimes, the flights passed right above our house. Yet, I never managed to click a picture of our home from air.

Among all the images of Bologna, I have selected one showing the highway exit to the trade-fair zone.

Conclusions

Over the past thirty years, air-travel has changed completely. Often old, tiny airports have been replaced by new, shining and modern structures.

One of my most terrifying journeys was in 1992 in a tiny two-seater plane in Santa Cruz (Bolivia), where it was raining hard. Our plane had tried but had not managed to take off and we had come to a screeching stop in front of a tree. I can still remember my nausea due to fear on that day.

I did not have a digital camera till 2005 and I have no pictures of most of my memorable journeys. Those journeys live only in my memories. Let me close this post with an image from the periphery of Prague in Czech republic - the buildings in this image remind me of things children make with Lego pieces.

***

A Theater and Photography workshop

I love both theater and photography. Thus, when I heard about the workshop on "Theater and Photography", I immediately knew that I wanted to join it. It was a perfect opportunity to meet actors and to reflect with them on the significance of theater and to understand the role of photography in it.

Theater and Photography Workshop

The workshop was an idea of Roberto Rizzotto, a noted photographer and cultural personality of Schio (VI) in the north-east of Italy. We didn't have any discussions about technical aspects of photography. Instead, our discussions focused on what Roberto calls the "Anthropology of Photography", which meant that photography is not just about getting a good picture, rather it is a pathway for a deeper understanding of theater, culture and ultimately human nature.

Schio Teatro 80

The workshop was organised in collaboration with a local theater group of Schio (VI) called "Schio Teatro 80". Started in 1980, it is one of the oldest non-professional theater institutions in Veneto region of Italy with around 70 volunteer members. Since 1989, every year it organises a theater training course.

Workshop Approach

During the workshop we worked with three actors - Tanina Amato, Alessandro Testolin and Elena Righele, spending around 1.5 - 2 hrs with each actor. Each actor presented a short performance, which we watched as spectators without clicking any pictures, so as to absorb the different aspects of the recitation.

Then the actor repeated the performance and this time, we photographed it. Finally, the actor and photographers discussed different aspects of the performance, such as the costume, the make-up, the gestures used and the significance of the performance for the actor. These discussions were additional opportunities for photographing specific aspects of the performance. Let me briefly illustrate the three performances.

Tanina Amato

Tanina did a brief performance on women victims of violence called "The sense of honour". The scene was based in afterlife where she first appeared as Carmela, a Sicilian woman who was killed by her husband because she had a love affair. Her second role was of Amina, a woman of Tabriz in Iran, who had been killed by stoning.

She had chosen a black dress with vivid red lipstick and bright eye makeup for this role. She started the performance by putting make-up on the stage and showed the transformation of the actor for the role.

Among the photographers, two aspects of her performance created a strong impact. First, was her feisty, unrepentant and sharp-tongued representation of Carmela, who is aware of her body and her desires. The second was her use of the black veil to cover Amina, showing just her hands, to express her desire of freedom.

Alessandro Testolin

Alessandro started with the old Venetian tradition of "Commedia dell'arte" (Art comedy) from 15-17th century that included the use of the mask for a theater based on satire. Using a red mask, he performed a provocative piece.

He also repeated the performance without a mask and shared his own unease about saying provocative things on the stage without the possibility of hiding behind a mask.

Then he did a short piece as Benedick from "Much ado about nothing" and finally concluded with a piece on Iago, the antagonist from William Shakespeare's play "Othello".

Elena Reghele

Elena first did an intense piece from Ingmar Bergman's play "Wood Painting" about a woman who has been declared a witch and who is going to be burned at the stake. Before, her piece, she showed a scene from Bergman's film "The seventh seal" based on this play.

Her second piece was a more playful expression of emotions as depicted in a Pollock-like painting. She did the piece with a blank canvas. Each emotion was linked to a colour. Thus, by changing her facial expressions and her gestures she was painting that canvas with those colours. This performance concluded with the presentation of the painting she was expressing through her emotions.

This explanation of her second performance was illuminating in making sense of her improvised dance around the canvas. I loved this performance.

Discussion and Conclusions

The whole day was a marvelous full-immersion in art and culture, linking the art of theater to the art of photography. The time passed very quickly and at the end I felt enriched by a greater understanding of what it means to be an actor. For example, it was fascinating to hear a discussion about transformation of theater in Italy from Comedy art to the plays by Goldoni and then by Pirandello.

Something that Elena said, resonated deeply with me. She said that in theater, mind, body and heart. all the three are needed. Mind because the actor needs to remember and think. Body because, actor must express through the body. And heart because, without the heart, there is no performance. At the same time, an actor must make sure that heart must not become too deeply involved - because it is a performance, it must have an end and the actor has to retain his/her sanity. I think that this mind-body-heart thing applies also to photography as well as to many other things in life.

The workshop made me think about the shadow of the actor on the stage. Normally, I prefer close-ups during a performance and to catch the different emotions they are expressing. The image below has Tanina with her shadow as she threw up the black cloth she was using as a veil.

I liked the idea of "anthropology of photography" where photography was not just about aesthetics and getting a "good picture". I liked the idea that photography could become a channel to engage with and to understand the art and the world.

Not all the persons participating in the workshop seemed to share this idea of photography.

I want to conclude this post by thanking Roberto, Schio Teatro 80 and the three actors - Tanina, Alessandro and Elena for their performances and their easy acceptance of our numerous demands and questions during the workshop.

The last image is of Elena Righele, who was absolutely wonderful in the part where she expressed the colours through her emotions.

***

The Photography Menace

Have you found yourself in situations where there are more photographers than there are artists at some public cultural events?

Unfortunately, often these photographers are also a little aggressive and they seem to believe that their right to click pictures is more important than the right of the public to watch the cultural event. They want to be in the front to click their pictures and some times they are willing to fight with each other to get the pictures they want.

If you think that I am exagerating, take a look at the picture below. Can you count the number of photographers surrounding the artists in this picture? And do you think that these photographers were really worrying about hundreds of spectators who had gathered in the city square to watch this cultural event?

Recently, I found myself in the middle of a fight among people wishing to click photographs. Fortunately, I was not involved in the fight, and as soon as I could, I slipped away to a calmer place. But the episode made me think about what had happened, how the world of photography is changing and the feeling that over the next years, probably the things are only going to get worse.

If we are organising a cultural event, I think that it is important to have clear rules so that photographers do not disturb the event. By photographers, I mean both - those with different kinds of digital cameras, as well as those with their smart phones.

THE FIGHT

First let me tell you about the fight that I witnessed. It happened one evening in Schio (pronounced Skio), a tiny town at the foothills of Alps in north-eastern part of Italy, where I live.

The cultural event was about the uniforms of the soldiers of Republic of Venice from 1797. It was almost near its end. I had found a place to stand in one corner of the square near the stairs of an underground parking. A guy with a nice SLR camera had taken position on the stairs, and set up his camera. For the finale of the event, they were going to fire the cannons. More people had joined us, including a lady clicking pictures with her smart phone, since we had a good view of the cannons.

The lady with the smart phone kept on moving from one side to other, to click pictures from different angles. I saw the man with SLR camera standing on the stairs, moving left and right, trying to get a visual of the event and avoiding the lady. After about fifteen minutes, he could not control himself and spoke sharply, "You mind standing still instead of moving all the time and breaking my balls?"

The lady turned towards him, initially shocked and a few moments later, indignant, "How dare you speak to me like that? Behave yourself."

I think that the guy realized that he had crossed a line and had been too rude, but for some time he continued to bluster, while the woman raised her voice and soon her husband, who was standing some distance away, came and joined her. For a moment, I thought that they were going to punch each other, but somehow common sense prevailed and the SLR camera guy backtracked, while the woman moved away.

After another 5 minutes, a couple of men with their smart phones, busy clicking a video, came and took the place vacated by the woman, standing in front of the camera guy. Disgusted, the guy snorted, put away his camera in his bag, left his place on the stairs and moved to an empty area of the square, which did not have a good visual of the event.

After the event, I kept on thinking about the photographers at the event. I was also there with my camera, though I am quite laid back about clicking pictures. If I get the opportunity I am happy to click but if people come and stand in front of me, I usually wait for them to move or change place.

That evening there were hundreds of persons who took pictures. Perhaps, 20% had digital cameras. The other 80% had their smart phones. That evening I was asking myself, if we going towards wars among the photographers?

PHOTOGRAPHY AS A PUBLIC MENACE

I think that photography in public cultural events has become a serious issue that requires the setting up of some clear rules.

In the cities of developed countries of Europe and US, and even in the big cities of less developed countries, the number of people with big SLR cameras and all other kinds of digital cameras is increasing every year. Whenever there is a public cultural event, it becomes a free for all among all the photographers to get good pictures, close ups and innovative angles. Some photographers block the visual of people who have come to watch the performance, standing there in the front as if they are transparent or if they have a special right to go and do as they wish.

I am not including "official photographers" in this list, including videographers, who also block the visuals but at least they do it because they are being paid to do it. In fact official photographers are often in the middle of the performances, moving around, not really bothering about the public.

If the epidemic of different digital cameras was not enough, the proliferation of good cameras in the smart phones and the possibility of sharing "See, I am here" kind of pictures on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, has added another layer of chaos to the discourse.

Now it is not enough to worry about those with digital cameras blocking you, there are literally hundreds more with their smart phones who also want to click pictures. If they have a family member or a friend who is performing in the event, they become impossible to control, jumping around in front, and refusing to move from their places, ready to fight for it if needed.

NEW RULES FOR PUBLIC PHOTOGRAPHY

It seems that the trend of taking pictures and videos and sharing them with our friends and others, is going to spread and get bigger over the coming years. Thus, I think that photography related conflicts are going to become more common.

The good manners' guides do not tell us how to behave in so many situations in today's world like for the use of our mobile phones and  cameras, but if we want to avoid conflicts, we need to define new rules that respect common codes of decency and privacy in public spaces.

Fortunately, lately my interest in photography is on the wane. I had my first digital camera in 2005. For many years I have suffered from clickitis, defined as the irresistible urge to click pictures. I was always looking for opportunities to click pictures. I had my photoblog Chayachitrakar where I posted new pictures every day. It has more than 2000 posts.

Then something changed inside me during 2015 - suddenly I was no longer so compulsive about clicking pictures. In January 2016, I also stopped adding pictures on my photo-blog. Lately I have even been to some cultural events without my camera.

I still take a lot of pictures, but if I can't, it is not such a big deal. Perhaps it is because of this change in my attitude that I can now talk of making of rules to regulate photography.

What do you feel - do you think that photographers are becoming a nuisance at public cultural events?

***

The photographer of famous persons

A chance visit brought me to the works of a photographer from Delhi, who had clicked pictures of the rich, the powerful and the famous persons passing through the Indian capital during 1950s and 1960s. These were the works of Mr. Madan Mahatta (Mehta). He died earlier this year, but I am really glad that I could see his works and to know about him.

A chance visit

I was in Connaught Place in Delhi and went to an Airtel shop to get a new SIM card.

"You need two pictures for the SIM card and you can go to the photography shop across the road for it", the Airtel guy told me.

I saw the board of "Photographers Mahatta" and walked in. The shop seemed full of cameras, tripods and other things necessary for photography, including a whole wall lined up with antique cameras.

"Take these stairs and go up", a guy guided me.

Upstairs had a photographer's studio with lights and reflectors. But there was no one there. While I waited, I looked around and saw a wall with some old black and white pictures, some of them hand-painted. Going closer, I found that some of them were of well known persons - India's first president Dr Rajendra Prasad, Gayatri Devi of Jaipur, Everest climber Tenzing Norgay ..

Soon a guy arrived and asked me to sit down on a stool. While he adjusted the lights, I asked him, "Who took those pictures?"

"It was Mr. Madan Mahatta, the owner of this shop. It is the oldest shop of photography in Delhi and next year we are celebrating our 100th anniversary", he told me proudly.

Madan Mahatta, the photographer

Afterwards I talked to Pavan Mahatta, son of Mr. Madan Mahatta. He explained that their family was from Srinagar in Kashmir. Photography was initiated by their grandfather in Dalhousie in 1915, when he was 17 years old.

Madan opened his photography shop in M block of Connaught Place in 1947. He went to study photography at Gilford in England and after his return in 1954, set up the first colour lab for photographers in India.

Pavan showed me a book that has been printed to mark the 100 years of photography by the Mahattas that has many examples of his father's works. "Queen Elisabeth of England, Jacqueline Kennedy, anyone who was famous and important, who visited Delhi, was photographed by my father in those days", he explained.

His image archives have been partially digitalized and some of these images can also be seen on the Mahatta website.

Madan Mahatta in the Indian press

Madan Mahatta was "rediscovered" by Ram Rahman a couple of years ago, who had curated an exhibition of his architectural pictures in 2012. I found different articles about this exhibition, that give more information about Mr. Mahatta:

  "Mr. Mahatta, the owner of the famous Mahatta Studios in Connaught Place, is palpably excited about the public display of his works. He shares the experiences he accumulated while capturing through his viewfinder angles and avenues of many a concrete landmark. Though only his architectural pursuits are going to be on display, the seasoned photographer is as animated about the moments of history that he lived through, capturing their images in his camera for posterity. He recalls how he climbed on top of India Gate to shoot Jawaharlal Nehru's funeral procession in 1964, and when he was invited to Bhutan to photograph the coronation ceremony of the king.... Although he has been using colour in photography since the very start of his career, it is black-and-white that he finds more fascinating to work with. “Black-and-White photography is the translation of colour using light and doing that needs a lot of skill.” And this is one of the many skills Mr. Mahatta displays." (in The Hindu)

"Mahatta’s photographs cover the important period of Nehruvian high modernism, a record of the creation of the new Delhi and the urban monuments of the new nation, most of them commissioned by Nehru himself. Coming from a family which owned the biggest and most reputed photo studios in North India, Mahatta worked closely with two generations of India’s best known modern architects including Charles Correa, Habib Rahman, Jasbir Sawhney, J.K. Chowdhury, Joseph Allen Stein, Achyut Kanvinde, Ajoy Choudhury, Kuldip Singh, Raj Rewal, Ram Sharma, Ranjit Sabhiki and designers Mini Boga and Riten Mozumdar." (article by Phantom Lady on "Take on Art" blog)

"A mini museum in itself, their store in Connaught Place is worth a visit. From their collection of old cameras, like the Kodak Autographic Vest Pocket Camera belonging to A N Mehta from 1912 and something called ‘Camera Gun’ made by Fairchild Camera and Instrument Corp. New York, which was used during World War II to click images from fighter jets to the D800e Nikon Arjun uses currently, this store is a must visit on every photography enthusiasts list." (on the Family history of the Mahattas by Tanya Gupta on "Know your city")

Madan Mahatta died on 6 March 2014 in Delhi.

Conclusions

I had seen some of the works of well known photographer Sunil Jinah, especially some his iconic images of Mahatma Gandhi and of the tribals from different parts of India. But I hardly knew about any other significant photographers from the pre and early years of post independent India. I am glad that this chance visit introduced me to the works of Mr. Madan Mahatta.

Though his architectural images have been exhibited, perhaps his other images also hide treasures that can be appreciated by art lovers and historians.

On the other hand, it is remarkable that the Mahatta Photographers shop continues to be still active. Apart from its wonderful collection of vintage cameras that have made the history of photography, today it sells equipment from various brands like Nikon, Cannon, Sony, etc. and Pavan's son Arjun continues the legacy that had started in Dalhousie in 1915. If you like photography and are near M block in Connaught Place, find time to go and visit the Mahatta shop!

(The image of Mr. Madan Mahatta used in this post is from LiveMint)

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