SAHMAT and NMML present Sunil Janah: Photographing India in the 1940's and 1950's: The Struggle for Independence and the New India
by
Ram Rahman
7 November 2009
In association with SAHMAT, a presentation of 'Sunil Janah: Photographing India in the 1940's and 1950's: The Struggle for Independence and the New India' was made by renowned photojournalist, curator and artist, Ram Rahman on 7 November 2009 in the NMML auditorium.
Presenting the works of Sunil Janah through a slide show, Ram Rahman demonstrated how Sunil Janah has been a legendary figure in the Indian photographic scene since the 1940's. As a photographer and reporter for the Communist Party of India's newspaper People's War, and later, People's Age, Janah recorded events which were altering Indian history during years of pre- and post-independence period and photographed the turbulent aftermath of the partition of India in 1947. With a 'Marxist Humanist' photographic style, he photographed the momentous events and figures in the last decade of freedom struggle as well as kept a visual diary of his friends and comrades, which have come down as a rich record of heroic moments in India's modern culture. Captivated by the personality of Mahatma Gandhi, he captured him in his various moments of isolation or that of his public life. He also photographed various forms of dance, which, combined with his passionate photographs of India's sculpture and traditional architecture, made a body of work which became a document of the rediscovery of the classical traditions in the first decade after independence.
