The description of his work does not describe him.

His calm, soft spoken, unassuming persona does not reveal his mastery in the field of photography. He speaks only when necessary but the quality of his work says all about his craft and art. He is like an encyclopedia of knowledge about the world of photography, especially about commercial photography and professional photographers in India, for the past five decades. Photographer Anil Dave is all of this and much.

Introduction to a small box camera more than five decades back ignited a flame of passion for image making in Anil Dave. Even today, after more than forty years of professional photography career, this fire of photographic excellence is evident in his work.

He remembers the journey over years in every detail. In year 1957 Anil Dave’s father came to Mumbai and settled in Kalyan. His father had a small camera, a Kodak brownie. His first effort of
photography was rather disappointing as the camera had some parts of the lens and shutter missing. This resulted in a dark negative without any images. But his enthusiasm for photography persisted. Later he visited his auntie’s house at Brahmapuri in Gujarat. The attic was being cleaned and in that junk he found an old box camera. He cleaned the camera carefully. To get the size 620 roll he has to visit the town called Iday town some 13-14 Km away. They did not have Kodak roll so a roll from Somapan was purchased and loaded. To wind the roll carefully so that first the dots are seen through a small window and then the frame number was a novel exciting experience for a boy in his 7th standard. He photographed his two sisters washing clothes and then some cattle in the field. The last 8th frame was remaining. He returned to his native place from auntie’s home. He was standing on the bank of a stream, it was almost sunset. His and his brother’s shadow was seen on the water and pebbles of the stream below. He clicked it, the roll was developed and printed. The composition and poise was so effortlessly good that, one of his Marathi neighbour who worked as an artist in Marg publications was quite impressed, expressing that ” aase photo kon kadhat nahi.” meaning, very rarely someone takes such pictures. Anil shot a few rolls after this but there were many scratches and dark streaks on negative, as the old camera was quite worn out.

When he was in the 8th standard, a school trip was arranged to Ajanta and Ellora Caves. Being very keen about photography, He requested his father to buy a Bunny camera which was the beginners camera then. His father gifted him the camera on his birthday. The shopkeeper advised him to buy an ASA 400 rolls. He remembers that three of his teachers had carried their cameras on the tour. Probably, he was the only student with a camera. Two of them did not get any good photos. The third one had a Yashika 120, but he took only group photos. So after the trip the school notice board displayed only the photographs of the place like the fort, water wheel, etc. shot by the student, Anil Dave.

His father had a transport garage and workshop at Kalyan. He used to help his father in repairs and other work at the place. He was doing photography as a hobby but was quite serious about it. When his father thought of shifting his business to Gujarat. Anil expressed his wish to stay at Kalyan to pursue photography as a profession. He was residing at his aunt’s place in Mumbai. Around this time, in 1972-73 he started shooting for magazines and periodicals.

The first 35 mm slide film he shot was a gift from a kind photographer. He went to a sea food exhibition at the Taj Mahal Hotel in Mumbai. Mr Suresh Seth was the official photographer documenting the event. Anil Dave started helping him in his work. Suresh ji noticed that Anil had his camera but was not shooting anything with it. On inquiry he learned that there was no film in the camera. He gave Anil an Agfapan transparency roll. He loaded it in his camera and photographed the seafood displays. After finishing the roll he gave it back to Sureshji. But he told Anil that it is for him, he should get it processed. This says volumes about the helpful nature of the professionals, to nurture young talent. In today’s over competitive attitude this seems amazingly kind and human. The sea food photos were appreciated and used in many periodicals including The Illustrated Weekly of India. It is interesting to know that it cost him Rs. 17 at that time to process the slide roll! He did photography for many publications. He said, “I have many first issues to my credit, like Inside-Outside, India Today, Sunday Guardian, Business India and a few others.” He did a lot of great work for annual reports. His work was lauded and awarded many times. His preference for light is always available light. He did his large number of photographs including portraits of eminent personalities as well as still life using available light. He was particular even when using studio lights to have no obvious impression of the subject being artificially lit.

He remembers a particularly interesting story about an assignment to photograph diamonds. “Some other experienced photographer had done a good job of photographing diamonds. When the client saw the photos, they were good but the diamonds were reflecting the background colours, the purity of the diamonds shine was lost. I was told to do the shoot. I had recently purchased a Sinar camera which had a 6X7 back. There was a setup of a glass of juice with a slice of lemon and a beautiful diamond at the centre of the lemon. I had some problem focusing on the diamond so I used an erasure in place to focus on the text on erasure. For the first shot, I forgot to remove the erasure before clicking. Later shots were excellent without any reflection or tint in the diamond. I had taken special care to illuminate the background separately in such a way so that the background was not reflected in the diamond”.

While shooting a postage stamp, he says, “I used the grid of a postage stamp album as a background. If the lighting is not perfect it looks like a photocopy. I did the lighting in such a way that the fibres of the stamp, the impression of the post mark are clearly visible, in three dimensions.” His photographs of vintage drawings and paintings of wildlife reflect this thoughtful attention to lighting angle. He credits his discipline and clear thought process to his father, who was ex-military. He narrates, “Even the simple things like keeping a glass of water has to be done with a method, in a perfect way. Even driving a car or cooking, do everything 200 present. In military, there are no ifs or buts. Only yes or no. No hesitation, kill or get killed.” He continues “Even when I cook sometimes at home, always a few people would get the aroma and inquire what’s new? I use the same spices but the method and thought process makes it special”.

Tata Steel, India’s premier private sector steel company, came up with a calendar commemorating the 50th years of Independence of India. Anil Dave travelled all over India and photographed the prominent places relevant to freedom struggle including the residences of the eminent freedom fighters. While printing he used some textured screen in the enlarger which gave the photographs a look of paintings. The news report noted that, “The paintings are by Anil Dave”.

He is always aware about the happenings in the field of photography. Knowledgeable about the vast array of professional equipment, he says that all these are the tools of the trade. Ultimately the photograph you create is what matters, not 50 megapixels or high tech light meter or flash. His choice of cameras and other equipment was frequently unique. He says about it, “I never used cult cameras. Pentax, Leica and Rolliflex were the choices of most photographers. I used Minolta, Nikon. Nikon was not a well-known name at that time. I used Brownie flash, purchased a Angénieux lens which cost 4 times the cost of Nikon lens. I had a MAC computer when very few people knew about it”.

Anil Dave is an annual report and conceptual corporate photographer since the last 45 years. He has travelled extensively all over India, South-East Asia and photographed its architecture, art, craft, events, lifestyle and rich cultural heritage”. This is what his website says! But this leaves a lot unsaid. Since childhood he has been pursuing photography diligently, with a single minded passion and a strong love for taking photographs. He has travelled all over India five or six times. He says matter of factly “At least four or five photographers know me from every city or town in India.” His involvement, passion, avid interest and intense curiosity to know more and selfless wish to disseminate this knowledge without any reserves to anybody ready to learn has earned him friendships and admirations at pictorial Photography clubs like FIP, IIPC, PSI and professional photography associations in India and abroad.

For the 150 years of photography celebration, Federation of Indian Photography, a national body of Photographers, was planning to have a display of old equipment, brochures and literature. Late Mr. R. A. Acharya an accomplished senior photographer asked him about this. He tells the story succinctly “I believed that on occasion of 150 years of photography, presenting a motley collection of old cameras, some photos from old books and old brochure is not appropriate. I said, I’ll do it in a better perfect way. Photography history is all about Louis Daguerre and William Henry Talbot Fox, about emulsion, chemistry. What about hardware? I sent letters to Pentax, Kodak, Agfa and others. Collected information about the 1st film, 1st Camera, new camera system that changed photography, the interchangeable lens, interchangeable back, new convenient technologies to facilitate the work of photographers.” He collected cameras from all over the country, cleaned them photographed them, and returned them. This was all done at his own expense. At the FIP convention everybody was blown away by this exhibition. Everybody was asking ” where did you get all this”. This exhibition was a grand success and travelled to many places. In year 1999, Mr. Uddhav Thakrey, the now Shivsena Chief and Chief Minister of Maharashtra, himself a keen photographer, saw the exhibition and said “I know that the lighting is arranged for these photographs but the effect is such, as if these are photographed in available light”. Anil would have liked to print this series in a diary with 53 pages, but unfortunately this did not materialize.

He has a huge collection of photographs, negatives and slides spanning over more than four decades. These are the archives of old Mumbai and many places in India. He has stories connected with these pictures, memories of the past experiences. An enormous amount of old, almost ancient equipment and bits and pieces and old negatives, receipts, prints and published, printed photographs in periodicals are preserved by him. People ask him what you do with all these photographs. He replies candidly “I am a photographer, so I take photographs. Does a poet think who is going to read or publish his poetry? If you like seeing movies do you keep record, and compare who sees more movies than you? The hobby, the drive comes from inside.”

He has very strong views about stock photography. He says “To shoot for stock, the photographer has no script, no lay outs to guide him. He has to study the needs of market and stock agency, plan his self-assignments on his own and at his own expense. He has to do a lot of research about the places he plans to visit. Sometimes the photographer has to hire models, studio, setups keeping in mind that the people in the photographs, lighting and whole composition should look natural. A lot of efforts, skills and funds are invested in a hope of a sale in future.” More than 30 years back, Anil Dave gave an enormous collection of his photographs to Dinodia Photo Library, the top Stock photo agency from Mumbai. Jagdish Agarwal, the founder of DPL was a close friend, and both benefitted from the good sales in following decades.

Anil Dave is still very much active in photography, always shooting what he wants to shoot. He has treasure trove of images old and new, and a vast collection of stories and anecdotes about the world of photography and the photographers in India encompassing the history of almost five decades, which would fill a few books.

Annex: A list of some of the Work by Anil Dave
I have been doing photography for over 50 years now. I Started photography in the year 1971 & Have travelled extensively all over India to photograph Architecture, Art, Craft, Events, Lifestyle, & Rich Cultural Heritage of the Country. Some of my work done in the past years is as below:

Anil Dave is still very much active in photography, always shooting what he wants to shoot. He has treasure trove of images old and new, and a vast collection of stories and anecdotes about the world of photography and the photographers in India encompassing the history of almost five decades, which would fill a few books.

Annex: A list of some of the Work by Anil Dave
I have been doing photography for over 50 years now. I Started photography in the year 1971 & Have travelled extensively all over India to photograph Architecture, Art, Craft, Events, Lifestyle, & Rich Cultural Heritage of the Country. Some of my work done in the past years is as below:

LIST OF PUBLISHED WORK

• Old Goon Houses for Taj Group Of Hotels
• Jodhpur architecture for Inside Outside magazine.
• Goa churches for Inside Outside magazine.
• Decorative Iron work for Inside Outside magazine.
• Bhubaneswar temples for Inside Outside magazine.
• Legendary landmark of Bombay for Taj magazine.
• Architecture tour for Mega City magazine.
• Cox & Kings Architecture Hotels–Booklet.
• Chimanlal’s desk diary on Door and Windows.
• Architecture Heritage of Baroda calendar for I.P.C.L
• Door and windows for desk diary for V.S.T
• Tata desk diaries on architecture.
• Korean design journal Rock Garden and Nari Gandhi’s work.
• Indian calling book.
• India land of Dream and Fantasy, a book.
• Marg Publications Goa and Tamil Nadu Issue.
• Won Cag Award (Commercial Artist Guild) in 1978, 1979, and 1984.
• Evolution of photography exhibition in 1989 Indore and 1999 at Photo fair Bombay.
• Our Architecture Heritage in 1997 in N.C.P.A Bombay and 1998 at Indira Gandhi National Center For the Arts Delhi.
• Bombay Art Deco buildings exhibition for N.G.M.A. National Gallery of Modern Art.
• Photographs were added to Collection of N.C.P.A and Al Qazi. 22.Annual reports for H.D.F.C, I.D.F.C, Bank of Baroda and Export Import Bank of India.
• On occasion of 50 Years of Indian Independence, did photography of Heritage residential location of Indian Freedom fighters, for TATA Group.
• Architecture Heritage of Baroda for I.P.C.L (Indian Petrochemical Corporation Ltd) in 1986.

Aniruddha Cheoolkar

AFIP

Interested in photography since early childhood, he prepared a contact printing frame for 120 negative when he was in 11^th standard of school. His first camera was Agfa Click III. Developing the black and white film at home in a makeshift darkroom in kitchen, he made the contact prints. Later, purchasing an enlarger he honed his skills of film developing and printing. One of his uncles, Mr. Chandulal H. Patil or Bhau, taught him the basics of photography. Bhau was an artist teaching at fine arts college at Pune. Anirudha was fortunate to learn how to draw and paint with Oil and Water colours as well as the special sketching technique called Scraperboard work. He still pursues these as his fond hobbies.
More than a decade later in year 1983 he joined advanced photography class of eminent photographer Mr. Sharad Devares, ARPS, AFIAP, AIIPC. He also was exposed to the world of pictorial photography and salon participation. He successfully participated in photography competitions and obtained his AFIP honour. He supplemented his income through commercial photography and stock photography. He taught photography at a Photo Academy and conducted workshops about shooting professionally with studio lights, product and portrait photography.
He always had a passion for books and reading. This naturally led to writing. He wrote for marathi periondicals about wild life, travel and was published with his photography. A photography magazine published his article about the creative use of Birefringence as well as About Photomicrography i.e. photography using a Microscope.
He helped Biology students by taking detailed photographs needed for their Post graduate and Doctoral studies using microscope. Always interested in the workings of creative minds, he interviewed 30 photographers from Dinodia Photo Library, and wrote about them and posted the same on a blog. Later, commemorating 30 years of DPL, abridged portion was published as a book titled “30@30” by Jagdish Agarwal, founder of DPL.
He had a Joint show with Pratap Paralkar, showcasing the artistic photographs exclusively taken using microscope. He also participated in a few group shows at art galleries. As formal education, he did his M. Sc., stood first in the university, joined an Environment Research Laboratory as a Senior Scientific Officer, retiring as a Superintendent chemist, after more than three decades of service. He loves expressing his feeling as poetry in Marathi, Hindi and English and presently is in the process of publishing his first poetry book.