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What makes the show interesting is the mix of photographers.

From the show A picture by Leena Kejriwal (top) and one by Nandini Valli Muthiah(below).

Caught between art and craft, photography has hardly made its presence felt in India. Even the West saw photography as a degree course in the 1970s. In India, it has yet to put down roots. Most photographers in India, hence, are either self-taught or learn the technique under a few known photographers.

Delhi has seen a few photography shows in recent times mounted by either the photographers or individual curators. Very few of them met with success, as the acceptance of photography as an art form still seems a far cry. The scenario has also been the same for ages because the art galleries didn’t take the ‘risk’ of mounting a photography show very often. For them the safe bets have always been oil and acrylic paintings. This time Vadehra Art Gallery made a beginning by mounting a photography exhibition of 86 contemporary photographers across India. The exhibition “Click! Contemporary Photographers in India” curated by Sunil Gupta and Radhika Singh took one year to materialise.

A search for “good pictures” sent them across the four metros of Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai and Delhi. As the gallery’s Parul Vadehra shares, the pictures, chosen from a total of nearly 800, were slotted into seven categories: ‘The lure of the local’ comprising a slice of daily life, ‘Whose body is it anyway’, on nudes, abstract nudes and a conglomeration of people, ‘Portraiture’ including largely posed pictures, ‘What can a woman do with a camera’ on women photographers, ‘Politics of identity’ on various people trying to make religion as their mark of identity and faceless people on the streets, ‘Performance as photographs’ on performing artistes caught unawares by the camera, ‘The archive’ on the good old common people and royalty, and the ‘Interioroscapes’ on inside views of room, library or balcony with a ‘subject’.

A few telling pictures hardly needed slotting. For instance, a 1975 picture by Raghu Rai in which a few Rajasthani villagers are trying to escape the dust storm raised by a VIP helicopter, and those of native Americans (the erstwhile American Indians) by Annu P. Matthew, Professor of Photography, University of Rhodes.

What makes the show interesting is the mix of photographers, many of whom left lucrative careers to take up photography full time, and many who are amateur.

Says Sunil Gupta, “It’s the time for amateur photographers as much as it’s the time to document and archive the pictures, as there is a risk of people ordering it on iTunes as they buy music today. The art market is opening up fast. So there should be proper degree courses and making, preserving and marketing of photographs.” In the light of Vadehra putting a price tag beginning Rs.8000, Gupta’s statement carries weight.

The exhibition continues till this coming Saturday.

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