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Home , Homai Vyarawalla, Kulwant Roy

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The irony was hard to miss at the ceremony held earlier this year at the Rashtrapati Bhavan, as Homai Vyarawalla took the dais to receive the , encircled by a flash mob of lensmen. On this one occasion, the now-frail, yet spirited photographer from the city of Navsari, in Gujarat, didn't require the endorsement of her trusted press corps badge to gain access into the presidential residence, the annexes and yawning corridors of which she has been rather familiar with, albeit when the edifice was known as the Viceroy's House. Through the 1940s and'50s, Vyarawalla was a recognised figure in these magisterial interiors, gaining nods from the then curator of a retrospective show of her work President of Rajendra Prasad, and that will open at the National Gallery of 'l tell people that she's especially from the then Prime Minister Modern Art in the city this fortnight. "Those . For close to three decades were different times," said Gadihoke, who not interested in thereon, Vyarawalla's name would become has also authored a book on Vyarawala, and synonymous with candid shots of Nehru - discussed her work in a fi1m. "There was a becomingwealthy!' as he hosted dignitaries, broke intir sense of ethics and self-respect. There is impromptu jigs, or took time off with his something to be admired in her resoluteness grandchildren. As the country's first not to take pictures that showed her subjects eventually got married, and with his help, woman photojournalist, Vyarawalla herself in an undignified manner." Homai Vyarawalla began contributing to turned into a public figure, almost as iconic Above all, Vyarawala stands the pages of the Bombay Chronicle, where as some of her pictures. In 1970, however, distinguished by a disarming self-effacing she got paid a rupee for every photograph four years after Nehru's demise, she decided nature, said Gadihoke. As the 97-year-old published. That really summed up all of her to call it quits, apparently dismayed by photographer offered in an appearance for motives, said Vyarawalla. journos around her stooping to gate- an open interview with the German curator Soon after, she moved to the lllustrated crashingphoto-ops. Hans-Ulrich Obrist, conducted as part of the Weekly of India, taking up assignments to The rough-and-tumble and shouldering- India Art Summit in New thisJanuary, document fire brigades, hospitals and in that became associated with journalism there was little question of her being rescue workers engaged in activities related was an unexpected development for inspired, or being consumed by an epiphany to the World War II. In 1942, a Vyarawalla, who'd cultivated her practice in when it came to clicking pictures. Having recommendation for the Vyarawallas to circumstances that were far more courtly studied art at 's lJ School, she'd spearhead the Far Eastern Bureau of the and mannered. Quite simply, "there was no taken to the camera by being around British Information Services 1ed them to place for a scoop or a sting" in Vyarawalla's Manekshaw Vyarawalla, a childhood friend move to Delhi, where she began freelancing four-decade-long career, which she began in who'd begun tinkering with film, for the Onlooher as well (after hours, when 1930, observed Sabeena Gadihoke, a long- developing pictures and despatching them she wasn't required to cover events led by time confidante of the photographer and to publishing houses. The two of them LouisMountbatten orNehru). Themainstay

16 www.timeoutbengaluru.net Apri I 29- May 72 20 7l HomaiVyarawalla

'These are amazing of the retrospective will undoubtedly be her ethnographies of the shots from that time - of Gandhi flanked by Khan and his personal 1930s and '40s.' physician Sushila Nayar at the Congress partition meet that determined the country's features on utility services during the in'47; crowds gathered at the Red Fort in WW[. "Many of her contemporaries, such Delhi the morning after the declaration of as Prem Prakash, Baldev Kapoor, a young Dalai Lama on a independence; and R Satakopan, TS Nagarajan, PN Sharma, recognisable visit to India in'50. The more Ram Dhamija and Kulwant Roy would also images of Nehru include one of him publish regularly inthe lllustrated Weekly," Asian releasing a dove at the opening of the noted Allana, citing the illustrious clique National Stadium in Delhi Games at the that Vyarawalla had been a part of. himposing in'51, andanunlikelymomentof Gadihoke added that the show didn't prohibiting photography at the beside a sign focus solely on Vyarawaila's work, and in (now named after capital's Palam Airport fact included a section devoted to assorted ) in'54, awaiting the arrival of memorabilia from Vyarawalla's closets. post his sister Vijayalaxmi Pandit from her "There are notes from the tabloid Current as ambassador to the formerSovietUnion. asking for pictures of 'good-looking Delhi years back, Curiously enough, a few women', scribbled letters asking for 'quick photographs, Vyarawalla pledged all of her reproductions' of images of the Queen, and Alkazi negatives and equipment to The letters of a friendship shared with [her one- Foundation-a lifetime's worth of work that, time Australian boss] Hugh Mclnnes for even by the most conservative estimate, can over 60 years." A rare lot of magazines, only be deemed priceless. "Homai was clear depicting hand-coloured photographs from that there should be no commercial use of the '30s and '40s, that show the manner in her pictures," said Gadihoke. "I tell people which Vyarawalla's images had been that she's not interested in becoming printed, laid out and captioned, are also wealthy! She wanted the collection to stay featured in this segment. "It's never enough within the country, and be available to to show images alone," explained Gadihoke. others who want to use them for research, or "These images have been printed many foreducation." times and circulated widely, through which Gadihoke found Vyarawalla's collection - we have learnt to recognise our nationalist with prints packed in boxes (the larger ones history." As a curator, her task was really in placed under her bed), negatives in setting a context, "to help us understand the Tupperware containers, and 100 old woman and her imperatives", while her "jackets", each containing 100 negatives - larger cause was to establish "a cuitural remarkably intact, despite having been history of photography", said Gadihoke. stored away for over two decades. "She's "Where was her work printed? How was it extremely meticulous," saidthe curator, "and circulated? What is their subsequent life? had isolated the negatives of the well-known I'm interested in these questions." pictures, and placed them in handmade By casting new light on Vyarawalla's jackets made of oilpaper, each of them neatly yellowed exposures Gadihoke said that she captioned in her handwriting." A large part of hoped that the show would also draw out Vyarawalla's treasure trove is still being similar collections - of Sunil Janah's work, opened up at the Foundation, said Gadihoke, for instance - into the public space. The adding that they planned to digitise all of the travesty of modern journalism that had material, tobe hostedona website. brought Vyarawalla to an abrupt halt, Instances from Homai's earlier pictorial meanwhile, was manifested in a new essays - on the fishermen of Versova in generation of picture makers, reflected Mumbai, and of women engaged in ginning Gadihoke, describing how she'd found "a cottonseeds and picking fields - are in the lone woman among many other competing show as well. "These are amazing photographers" at the felicitation at the ethnographies of the '30s and '40s," said Rashtrapati Bhavan - the India Today Gadihoke. "As visual records of that time, stafferSipraDas-"fightingandclawingher and because of their context, and stories way to apicture". around them, they have tremendous value." Homai Vyarawalla: A Retrospective opens In an essay on the history ofphotography in at the NGMA on Sat May 7, 6Pm. The India, Rahaab Allana, curator of the Alkazi photographer uill also host a guided tour of Foundation, pointed out that it was Stanley the shout on Sun May 8, I lam, uhich will be Jepson who, as the editor of Illustrated follouted by a talk by Sabeena Gadihoke. For Weekly, had urged Vyarawalla to shoot details see Photography and Talks in Art.

April 29 - May 72 2071 www.timeoutbenglaluru.net 17