Introduction

There was no internet at that time in India; it used to take more than a month sometimes to get a reply of a letter, which was sent to an overseas country. The main source of information was only accessible by browsing through books and journals accumulated in selected libraries in the city. Reading daily newspapers meticulously was a must to live in the present. Study…study and study… that was the only Mantra of those days to pursue with photography or anything sincerely during the last decade of twentieth century for us as students.

Film and paper were a recurring investment, we used to buy 100-ft cans of Kodak Tri-x to make cut-rolls out of it to save money, most of us had a basic analogue lab at home consisting one KB photography enlarger, easel and a Patterson film tank. We had learned the technique of developing film and making print from friends who attended a formal photography course or used to work in commercial studios.

Learning photography, during that time in Bengal, meant learning physics and chemistry mostly with the knowledge of light for making good exposures with the camera, which was added by some information to develop a perceptive to frame an ideal photographic visual. That was the scenario of the general trend of photography in that era. Some of us had the opportunity to see the work of a number of foreign photographers in international publications and books besides a handful of available books about personalities, cities, incidents or on something else’s made by some Indian photographers such as Sunil Janah, Kishore Pakekh, Raghubir Singh, Raghu Rai, Sanjeev Saith, Nemai Ghosh, Ashvin Mehta, Sunil. K. Dutt and also by some others. Dayanita Singh had made an early entry in to that circle with her first book on Zakir Hussain that had published in 1986 when she was studying at National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad and had photographed Hussain over past six winters, photographic book culture by Indian photographers was slowly progressing in that time followed by Prabuddha Dasgupta (Women, 1996), Ketaki Sheth (Twinspotting, 1999), and so on.

The long waiting to get a second-hand copy of Life, Time, or National Geographic magazine was an astounding excitement for us while living in a politically tranquil Bengal of the 90’s and dreaming to do something substantial in photography, whereas the Bengal had a glorious history in practising photography since its discovery.

Early Photographers of Bengal

The oldest advertisement about trading Daguerreotype camera in this country can be found published in The Friend of India newspaper, on 28th January 1840 by Thacker and Co. from Calcutta.

History ascribes that the biggest and oldest commercial venture of photographic studio in India was initially established by the trio William Howard, Samuel Bourne, and Charles Shepherd in Shimla in 1863 and then to some other cities in the country. However, it is also learnt that William Howard had his studio back in 1840’s at Esplanade Row in Calcutta.

Mr. Mons. F. M. Montario, who is identified by the historians as the first professional photographer in India, was also from this city. An advertisement substantiating this was published in The Englishman newspaper on 6th July, 1844 as below:

Mons. F. M. Montario, No. 7, Wellington Square begs to inform the public that he is prepared to take likeness by the daguerreotype process. He calls at private residences when required.

Origins of Photographic Society of Bengal:

The ‘Photographic Society of Bengal’ was founded on 2nd January, 1856, with Dr. F. J. Mouat as the first president of the society and Babu Rajendralal Mitra, one of the eminent personalities of Bengal Renaissance Movement, a polymath, who had joined the society as both the Secretary and the Treasure.

After the death of Rajendralal, an obituary was published in Hindu Patriot in 1891, where one mention is as below:

“We might notice here that he was one of the best Photographers, on his day”

British Royal Photographic Society and Bengal

It is discussed in the history of photography of this subcontinent that many eminent and intellectual Bengalis took up photography as a medium of Art practice or as trend since mid-nineteenth century. The names of first two Indian fellows of British Royal Photographic Society (RPS) are Maharaja Bahadur Sri Prodyot Coomar Tagore (1898) and the Writer/Poet Sukumar Ray (1922) both they were Bengalis and from Calcutta itself.

Women photographers of 19th century Bengal

Besides a good amount of male participation, amateur and professional in common, women photographers, too, had a domineering presence in the development of photography culture in Bengal in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Journals and documents published by the Photographic Society of Bengal in 19th century and the history of the Zenana studios in India talks about that account. It was by the first professional woman photographer in India Mrs. E. Mayer who opened a studio at the corner of No-7, Old Court House Street in Calcutta in 1863, which was followed by another female photographer Mrs. D. Garrick’s ‘Ladies Only’ studio on Waterloo Street in 1877.

The name of the first native Indian female photographer that appeared in the history is Maharani Monmohini Devi, wife of Maharaja Birchandra Manikya (1839—1896) of Tripura. Maharaja Birchandra also was a dedicated expert and well-known photographer of that time. He started a photographic club in Agartala and used to hold annual photography competitions in his palace, while in Calcutta the practice of photography had also been started by native Bengali women in late 19th and early 20th century.

Jnanadanandini Devi, wife of Rabindranath Tagore’s elder brother Satyendranath, was one of the pioneers among them. It is believed by some scholars that Jnanadanandini Devi had taken pictures of many of the elderly women of Tagore family who had remained pardanashin– women who observed strict rules of privacy due to the social custom of that age.

Talking about another photographer in the late 1800s, a news article, published in Amritabazar Patrika dated 10th January 1898, titled, ‘A Lady Photographer’, stated…

…We are amazed to see the well-skilled work of a native lady artist of Mohila Art Studio, located at 32, Cornwallis Street. We have noticed the finest kind of finishing that accomplished in the jobs she has made for us, which positively recognizes about her credibility and expertise as a photographer without any doubt…

The name of this lady was Sarojini Ghosh who was probably the first native lady professional photographer of Calcutta in 19th century.

Inspired by the reformist Bramho Samaj Movement and their agenda on women education, Mrs. Wince, another photographer in Calcutta, was simply not satisfied by taking pictures professionally. She went on to teach photography to Bengali women in late 19th century. Her endeavor was mentioned in the editorial of Bamabodhini Patrika in 1885. Mrs. Wince’s announcement was published in the advertisement column in the same issue of Bamabodhini stated as below:

PHOTOGRAPHY
Mrs. Wince, practical photographer is prepared to give lessons in the art of photography to ladies and gentlemen at their own houses, or to conduct class either in town or mofussils. Portraits taken at ladies’ own houses. Terms on application to Mrs. Wince care of Messrs. W. Newman & Co. 4 Dalhousie Square.

Pioneering Native Bengali photographers

Inventory of names of the native Bengali photographers since mid-19 th century, from a British-colonized Bengal till the independence of the country, is extremely long. Some pioneering names obtained from the journals published by ‘Photographic Society of Bengal’ (1856-1857) as the members of the Society are: Rajendralal Mitter, Knailal Dey, Priyonath Seth, Goordoss Bysack, Govin Churn Dey, Sham Churn Mullick, Grees Chunder Ghosh, Cowar Collycomar Roy Mullick, Radhacoomar Bysack, Muthoorloll Bysack (spellings unchanged) etc. And some names of the native Bengali women photographers that started to emerge in the history from late 19th century are: Maharani Monmohini Devi, Jnanadanandini Devi, Sarojini Ghosh, Annapurna Dutta, Chanchalabala Dasi, Mira Choudhuri and Indira Devi, Annapurna Goswami, Debalina and Monobina Sen Roy, etc.

Techniques used in photography during 19th and 20th century

Initially, photography was practiced with Daguerreotype in 1840’s, but as the new techniques were developed through experiments, these were also willingly accepted and adopted by the photography community in Bengal. Here is an excerpt from an article published in The Friend of India dated 2 nd November 1848 that referred one news of The Englishman:

….The Englishman reports that a Mr. Schranzhofer has arrived in Calcutta and intends practicing photography upon the system invented by Mr. Talbot, and to which he gave the name calotype. The portraits are in many particulars superior to those taken by Daguerreotype, and it is asserted that a method has been invented which renders them more durable than the original inventor was able to effect…

After 1852, many other techniques were introduced in photographic practice, and those became popular around the world, such as Ambrotype, Tintype, Albumen Print, there were also other techniques introduced such as, Carte de visite– largely popularized by Mathew Brady during the American civil war in 1860’s, Wet Colodian Process, Gelatin Dry Plate, Platinotype Print and Cyanotype process known as Blueprints that was prepared by Sir John Herschel. And almost all these methods were practiced in Bengal and by Bengali photographers as well during 19th and 20th century.

Photography Society of India

The Photographic Society of Bengal closed around 1876 because of disbanding of its members. Later, in 1886, Indian Journal of Photography a magazine edited by W. A. Shepherd came out in circulation and was published from 19, Lalbazar Street. Only twenty-eight copies of that journal were sold and a new organization called Photography Society of India was formed in 1888.

Representation of photography in Bengali literature and film

Photography, photographers and their subjects have always been represented in Bengali literature and in films through many different perspectives to signify a variant societal spectrum, some examples that we see in Bengali novels such as Jogajog (1927) written by Rabindranath Tagore, Hire Manik Jwole (1930’s) by Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay and in Chiriyakhana of Byomkesh series by Sharodindu Bandyopadhyay, later on which was adapted in movie acted by Uttamkumar and directed by Satyajit Ray in 1967, the diverse roles of photography and photographers in the society that has referred to in some other famous movies are like Ajantrik (1958) by Ritwik Kumar Ghatak, Kanchenjungha (1962) By Satyajit Ray and in Mirnal Sen’s Khandhar (1984).

Onset of photo documentation, documentary photography and photographers

A conscious social, political, travel or historical documentation or storytelling through a series of images was unknown to Bengali photographers till we saw the works of Sunil Janah from 1940’s and afterwards. But the description of a notebook created in 1902 and some family albums that consist set of photographs and writings by an amateur photographer named Ambikacharan lived in Baharampur perhaps is the example of early methodical documentary photography practice that initiated in Bengal.

A 32-page handwritten notebook dated 1902 and 1903 added with glued photographs in every alternative page titled ‘A VISIT TO MAHAKAL’ — Being the record of a short journey to the stalactite caves in the same…

Is probably one of the first examples of a conscious endeavor of documentary photography in Bengal, which the photographer Ambikacharn had made independently out of his four consecutive expeditions (1900-1903) to Mahakal Cave, situated near Buxa Tiger Reserve in Northern part of Bengal. It is also observed in the family albums that how Ambikacharan had photographed his daughters in different stages of their age; their transition – from kids to grown-ups, to women and till the time they were married – through a personal and intimate eye of a father. It reminds us about the series titled ‘The Brown Sisters’ by photographer Nicholas Nixon or we can try to see a resemblance with the book titled ‘Immediate Family’ by photographer Sally Mann.

Parimal Goswami

A thirteen-year-old boy first touched a field camera during his visit to Darjeeling in 1913; he immediately fell in love with the gadget when he saw an upside down image of a large rose on the ground glass of that camera. In 1919, he bought his first gear ‘A Quarter Plate Camera’ with metal shutter and attached with an Aldis Rapid Rectilinear 7.7 Lens priced Rs 45. Parimal Goswami was probably the only photographer who had taken pictures of all intellectual Bengalis and artists from 1920 through 1940. Parimal’s son Himanish Goswami, the famous writer, cartoonist and journalist was also an avid photographer.

Shambhu Saha

If we speak about the most famous photographs of Rabindranath Tagore and the photographic documentation of activities of Shantiniketan from 1936 to 1941, the name which prominently pops up is that of photographer Shambhu Saha. Saha was invited to do some photographic documentation of the work and activities in rural areas in and around Shantiniketan through a grant provided by the English philanthropist Leonard K. Elmhirst to the institution founded by Tagore. Later, Saha close to Tagore and took many of his photographs. After the death of the poet in 1941, Saha came back to Calcutta and started a career as a commercial photographer by contributing to the renowned advertising agencies like D. J. Kimmer and J. Walter. Thompson.

Sunil Janah

Looking at his curiosity in photography, Photojournalist Sunil Janah’s grandmother had very kindly bought him a camera, a German-make Voigtlander Brillant 7.7 model, when he was mere ten or eleven year’s old. Janah spent his childhood learning photographic techniques, including developing film and making prints in Shambhu Saha’s photographic darkroom. In a couple of years, his photographs got published in the photography competition section of The Illustrated Weekly of India magazine.

During his study in the University of Calcutta, Janah became a member of Student Federation; it was in 1943, the year of Bengal famine. Communist party politician Puran Chand Joshi was in Calcutta at that time and urged Janah to abandon his English studies and pursue a career in photography. And soon Janah’s photographs of famine appeared in the People’s War and People Age magazines. The pictures got immediate recognition, were able to raise funds and were widely publicized.

After that, Janah traveled throughout Bengal with the leftist political artist Chittaprosad Bhattacharya to photograph the damages caused by the 1943 famine. When ‘People’s War’ published Sunil Janah’s photographs and Chittaprasad’s drawings, the whole world’s attention came on to the famine in Bengal. These photographs and drawings were a story in themselves: a powerful story about reality.

These pictures were able to counter the arguments of those who saw the famine as a result of drought or any natural catastrophe; and substantiated that it was a result of the British participation in the Second World War and their imperialist, accumulative and inhuman policies that sacrificed the lives of three millions (the figure is quoted in Amartya Sen’s articles) poor Indians, to their imperialist lust.

Sunil Janah is internationally acclaimed for documenting India’s independence movement, its Peasant and Labor movements, Famines and Riots, Navy Rebellion in Bombay, Rural and Tribal life of India, as well as the years of rapid urbanization and industrialization of the country after independence.

An excerpt from a recorded interview made by photography historian Siddhartha Ghosh taken on 3 rd March 1986 in Calcutta, where Janah speaks about his own idealism and photography, is cited below:

…Being a communist means having a social consciousness, where photography becomes an ideal medium to express your social consciousness, to express your awareness of things that are happening around you—so if there is a commitment which I found very easy to fulfill with the medium I worked in. I thought photography to me was more like writing than taking pictures— I was not a pictorialist, I was not trying to make beautiful pictures. I was trying to record reality around me…

Photography after Independence, in Bengal

Freedom of India finally arrived but it divided Bengal with an everlasting rupture in terms of every aspects. The British were gradually leaving India but left a continuing colonial hangover to the traditions to this subcontinent. A new photography club culture began gaining attention in this part of Bengal of independent India. Photographic Association of Bengal was established in 1951 followed by Photographic Association of Dumdum, which was formed in 1957; both exist today. The main agenda of these clubs were to encourage the works of amateur photographers through salon shows and by annual exhibitions.

‘The Family of Man’ and the Bengal connection

In 1955, photographer Edward Steichen, the then director of Department of Photography MoMA (New York), organized a worldwide touring photography exhibition titled ‘The Family of Man’, which comprised pictures taken by photographers from all over the world. The only photographer from India present in the show was Satyajit Ray. The exhibited photograph was a still from his debut film Pather Panchali, which was also released in the same year on 26th August.

The touring exhibition of ‘The Family of Man’ came to Calcutta in March 1957 that enormously inspired a particular city boy, who visited the exhibition several times with his father and elder brother. This boy, Jayanta Saha, started photography soon after a couple of years and continued to document Calcutta over five decades. His new book was recently published with 99 Black and White photographs of the city titled ‘Our Kolkata’.

Photography in Bengal from 60’s through 90’s

From 60’s through mid-70, Bengal was in full of misery. Wound of partition; Bangladesh Liberation War; migration from East Pakistan; uprising of Naxalbari movements with the slogan “Land to Tiller”; political clashes; murders and unrest; shrinking of the three major industries of the region – Jute, Colliery and Tea; emergency declared in 1975; unemployment and the social insecurity; these all were leading the region to a vague destiny till a new leftist government was formed in 1977, which would rule Bengal for next 34 years.

From the 80’s, the photography community in Bengal was divided in two distinct sections: one group comprised amateur, Sunday photographers represented by photography clubs and exhibited in photography-salon shows; and the other group contributed or joined in newspapers and magazines as photojournalist or press photographers, while a few ventured into advertising or NGO work.

However, from 1970, an alternative platform gradually made its way in promoting photography and film in Bengal. It was an initiative by a French-Canadian Jesuit priest, Father Gaston Roberge (died on August 26, 2020). Chitrabani, an institution had offered diploma courses on photography and film appreciation from early 70’s and started an endeavor towards the end of that decade titled ‘People of Calcutta’—a photo-documentation project. The project aimed to inspire changes through photographing the everyday lives of the people in the city.

In 1990, Chitrabani was gifted a treasure in terms of development of photography in the entire ubcontinent. American photographer a Guggenheim and Fulbright fellow William Gedney donated 974 books exclusively on photography to the institution; many of these books being rare first edition and out-of-print titles. This helped the institution’s photography course and photo-documentation project on Calcutta which was still in running at that time.

From the mid-90’s, a genre of documentary photography was visible in Bengal and was practiced by a few independent photographers, who worked on self-determined long-term specific projects. Many of these projects were done without any grant or supports. Jayanta Saha, who had been photographing mainly street life of an ever-changing Kolkata over five decades, published the book titled ‘Our Kolkata’ (2018). Kushal Ray worked on a project documenting a single middle-class Bengali joint family in Kolkata for over a decade his debut book ‘Intimacies’ was published in 2012, Sumit Basu’s long term work titled ‘Time in Banaras’ was published in 2016. Saibal Das’s ‘Circus Girl’ (2010) and ‘Before the Birth of Time’ (2014) and Arun Ganguly’s (an octogenarian now) ‘Lure of the Lakes (2010) – all these books are now available in photography book stores.

Besides the published books, there exists other important body of work by photographers who live in Bengal. For instance, ‘Nowhere People’, ‘Refugees In Their Own Land’, ‘Being & Nothingness’ and ‘Radha – A Love Eternity’ by Swapan Nayak who started working as a photojournalist in mid-90’s, but took an early retirement and became an independent photographer.“Ladakh’- by Kushal Ray, ‘Chitpur Road’- by Saibal Das, ‘Calcutta’s Kumartuli Potters—a yearlong calendar of image making’- by Dev Nayak. The Constructional Development of New Town Kolkata- an eight year long documentation, which entirely shot with Panoramic Analogue camera by Rajib De, ‘Another Me’- a project by photographer Achinto Bhadra,
the Documentary Photographer Achinto and Counsellor Harleen Walia guided 126 girls and women through a healing journey of psychological transformation. Achinto’s portraits record trafficking survivors’ imaginative vision of themselves as human, animistic and divine beings of power, love, revenge, and freedom. The girls and women in these photographs are survivors of trafficking, rape, or abandonment, or are the children of sex workers and this work is exhibited worldwide.

Photography and Photographers of 21st century Bengal

In 2000, we participated in an interesting photography workshop conducted by Shahidul Alam, Raghu Rai and European editor/curator Neil Burgess, which was organized by British Council Kolkata. It was probably the first kind of an informal but practical education for many of us about telling stories through photography and was a tutorial to approach a documentary project, visually.

In 2001, the educational wing of World Press Photo had announced to carry out a three-year long Workshop-cum-Seminar Series to be held in Delhi (2001 to 2003). Only ten photojournalists were selected from different part of the country to attend this photographic educational program where two of them were from Kolkata.

In 2002, the Dhaka based renowned photography organization Drik Picture Library had opened their first overseas branch in Kolkata.

The culture of documentary photography has started to swing more seriously in Bengal from 2010. And the newest generation of photographers appear rapidly to have been equipped with proper education of photography as a medium of expression in the modern era and trend, where all of them are skilled and have studied through a systematic discipline of photography as a language.

And this latest generation of photographers from Bengal did not take long to get International recognitions by their works, thoughts and expressions that they practice in photography, all of them in their early thirties now, young, energetic and charismatic, too.

Coming across through many of the works by modern generation’s young photographers in Bengal, let me cite some names here whose works already published in book format, besides other prestigious recognitions:

Arko Datto, besides working on many projects In this subcontinent, which are funded by renowned international grants in photography, he published his first book with the writer, critic and film-maker, Tariq Ali ‘The New Adventures of Don Quixote’ (2015), after that ‘Pik Nic’ (2018) and ‘Will My Mannequin Be Home When I Return’ (2018).

Ronny Sen, works back and forth as photographer and as film director, writer and has made two photography books ‘Khmer Din’ (2013) and ‘End of Time’ (2016).

Rohit Saha, completed his Masters in Photography from National Institute of Design, Gandhinagar, and has published his book on Extra Judicial Killing in Manipur titled ‘1528’ (2019).

Soham Gupta, his work constantly moves between the realm of documentary photography, art and the written word. He responds to themes of loneliness and isolation, of abuse and pain, of scarred pasts and uncertain futures, sexual tensions, and existential dilemmas. Has published his book titled ‘Angst’ (2018).

Soumya Sankar Bose’s practice includes uses of photography, archival material, text and film to explore desire, identity and memory. His first book ‘Where the Birds Never Sing’ (2020) is on Marichjhapi massacre, the forcible eviction in 1979 of Bengali refugees on Marichjhapi Island in Sundarban, West Bengal has only just published in this September.

Conclusion

To conclude, when I look at the photographic practice by these young photographers in Bengal and also their involvement and awareness in contemporary social political opinions today, it reminds me the episode of the 19 th century photographer Babu Rajendralal Mitra of Bengal and his active concern in support to implement of the Black Act at that time. As a consequence of his patriotic activism, Babu Rajendrala was deceptively suspended from Photographic Society of Bengal by the Parliamentary tricks applied by the British members of the society, and how almost all the native members resigned from the society in protest to that lawlessness and to stand by the side of Rajendralal as photographer community of Bengal.

Nilayan Dutta

Nilayan Dutta is a documentary photographer and founder of ‘School of Visual Appreciation Kolkata’.