Indian Photographers Who Changed The Cultural Discourse Of The Country

(L) World Press Photo; The Indian Express (R)

The art of photography was born in India in the mid-19th century when colonial rule in the subcontinent was at its peak. Even though the technology was new and unexplored, it was not that the country had any dearth of artists yearning to give shape to their artistic impulses. A generation of photographers was born at that time, dabbling in an experimental art form that was something completely new in India.

Here are a list of some of the most iconic photographers of India:

I. Pablo Bartholomew

Adopting the camera at the tender age of 9, Pablo Bartholomew, the son of eminent art critic, Richard Bartholomew, gained an initiation into photography by capturing everyday moments among friends, family, people and cities. Born in Delhi, Pablo learnt the basics of photography from his father and began to experiment on his own from the age of 16. He started his career as a photojournalist and covered conflict and marginalisation in society. He worked in advertising as well as stills photographer for Satyajit Ray’s Shatranj ke Khiladi and Richard Attenborough’s film, Gandhi. At the young age of 20, Bartholomew won the World Press Photo award for his series on morphine addicts in 1976. In 1984, he went on to receive the award again for Picture of the Year for his unforgettable image of the Bhopal Gas Tragedy. His work is an amalgamation of photojournalistic elements, as well as surrealist-inspired juxtapositions. He presents the positive and the negative aspects of modernization in his country while neither endorsing nor condemning them. His photographs have since been published in the New York Times, Time, Life, National Geographic and The Guardian.

You can check out his Instagram here.

II. Avani Rai

Avani Rai gained an initiation into photography under the tutelage of his father, the eminent photographer, Raghu Rai. Her first camera was a red and white film camera given by her father. Her photographic oeuvre lies in capturing the human being caught in pain and conflict. Avani Rai’s haunting and heart-breaking photographs from her week-long trip to Bhopal and from her Kashmir visits were displayed at Goethe Zentrum. Her frames capture the aftermath of the Bhopal Gas Tragedy and the human cost of the tragedy. Her trip to Bhopal was part of an assignment to photograph the Chingari rehabilitation centre, housing the victims of the Bhopal Gas Tragedy. She has also photographed the protests in Delhi, the elections and the results. She has covered the conflict in Kashmir, and evoked the powerful image of a conflict zone through a series of images. Her debut documentary, Raghu Rai: An Unframed Portrait (2017) on her father, the legendary photographer assumed the shape of a 55-minute film which has been screened across major festivals in the world including the Dharamshala International Film Festival (DIFF).

Avani Rai

You can check out his Instagram here.

III. Raghu Rai

Born in the village of Jhang, Punjab, British India, Raghu Rai started learning photography under the guidance of his elder brother Sharampal Chowdhry. He took up photography in 1965, and the following year joined The Statesman newspaper as its chief photographer. Impressed by an exhibit of his work in Paris in 1971, Henri Cartier-Bresson nominated Rai to join Magnum Photos in 1977. Rai left The Statesman in 1976 to work as picture editor for Sunday, a weekly news magazine published in Calcutta. He left in 1980 and worked as Picture Editor/Visualizer/Photographer for India Today, India’s leading news magazine, during its formative years. From 1982 to 1991, he worked on special issues and designs, contributing trailblazing picture essays on social, political and cultural themes, many of which became the talking point of the magazine. He was awarded the ‘Padmashree’ in 1972, one of India’s important civilian awards ever given to a photographer for the body of works he produced on Bangladesh refugees, the war and the surrender. In 1992 he was awarded “Photographer of the Year” in the United States for the story “Human Management of Wildlife in India” published in National Geographic. In 2009 he was conferred Officier des Arts et des Lettres by French Govt. He has done extensive work on the photo documentation of 1984 Bhopal Gas Tragedy and its continuing effects on the lives of gas victims under a special assignment from Greenpeace International.

Raghu Rai

You can check out his Instagram here.

IV. Bharat Sikka

Born in 1973, Bharat Sikka moved from India to New York to pursue his career in photography and to study at the Parsons School of Design there. He received his Bachelor’s degree in photography in 2002, and has since been involved in several commercial projects for various high-profile international magazines. His subjects range from landscape and portrait to street and studio, art and life. In his series on Indian Men, Sikka allowed the personality of his subjects to shine through.

His work has been exhibited in various exhibitions and institutions: Where the Flowers Still Grow, on Kashmir, opened at the Kochi Muziris Biennale 2016; Sikka’s project on queer identity in Brighton, The Marlborough Theatre, premiered at the Brighton Photo Biennale 2016 as part of a collaborative show, Reimagine. He has been published in several publications such as Vanity Fair, Time Magazine, The New Yorker and Vogue India.

You can check out his Instagram here.

V. Prabuddha Dasgupta

Prabuddha Dasgupta had no formal education in photography. Even though he studied history in college, he eventually went on to shift his stream and work as a copywriter, a profession he soon left in order to pursue photography. Dasgupta’s work has been exhibited and published both in India and around the world. In 1996, his controversial collection of portraits and nudes of urban Indian women titled Women was published. His work was included in many publications including the Paris Review, and the volumes of Nudi and India Now: New Photographic Visions. Dasgupta was also the recipient of many grants and awards including the Yves Saint Laurent Grant for Photography in 1991.

Prabuddha Dasgupta

You can check out his work here.

VI. Homai Vyarawalla

The first woman photojournalist of India, Homai Vyaravalla was born in Gujarat into a Parsi family. She spent much of her childhood on the move because her father was an actor in a travelling theatre group. Popularly known as Dalda 13, after the licence plate number on her first car (DLD 13), she kick-started her career at a time when women were discouraged from studying, let alone getting a job. She was at the forefront of documenting India’s freedom struggle. When she worked in Delhi for the British Information Service, she was often seen cycling through the capital with her camera strapped to her back. Her most iconic images comprised of the theme of British departure from India, the funeral of Mahatma Gandhi and that of former Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru