Visions from the inner eye , Photographic Art of A L Syed published by Mapin publishings Ahmedabad in 2001 is written by known photographer O P Sharma. This book was published as a tribute to one of the great photographers of India Abid Mian Lalmian Syed. ( Known as A L Syed ) With its 93 photographic prints this book is a journey down the timeline.

Getting an opportunity to see the balck and white photographic image, is a very rare event nowadays with technology to capture the image is developing so fast. That to see the 93 images in an album is a real treat.

Beside the photographs, one gets a life sketch of A L Syed which is rare to find and is very much unknown. It is an interesting story. There are many similarities to the very popular painter of India Raja Ravi Varma, his role in the Indian art scene in pre-Independence India, his Travancore court connection, painting of royal portraits etc.

A L Syed , father of actress Nafisa Ali, was born in 1904 in Varnawada, a small village in Banaskantha district, Gujrat. He spent his childhood in nearby Palanpur, his Father was a well known Hakim and a courtier of Palanpur court. He wanted him to be Hakim like him but destiny lay elsewhere. His elder brother was a freelance photographer known for his portrait photographs in Palanpur. He started working with him and got introduced and learnt the skill of photographs. With the help of his brother he also got enrolled in Palanpur court and was a royal court photographer of Palanpur court.

He captured many of the Royal family members portraits and was also requested by many other courts and royal families throughout Gujarat, Rajasthan and other princely region. Palanpur court and royal family treated him like a family member and was a confidant of many royal members, men as well as women. He documented all the important court gatherings, hunting expeditions, marriages and festivities. He traveled with the royal family nearly all over the world as well as all over India and captured the breathtaking views of India.

He has captured many of the amazing views of the Indian surrounding. His works, photographs were the introduction to Indian photographic scene. His way of seeing the Indian landscape, people was to an extent inspired by the western art of photography. But his sense was not of the colonizer. In pre independence India, throughout many British and European artists, photographers looked at Indians as Natives and landscapes as a place of mystery creating a certain mysterious vision about India. Especially when the Indians were painted , for their caste, religion, costume, trade, variety they were painted as specimens, and painted with a scrutincial objective viewpoint , as if the artist is painting a specimen of a natural world. This dry objective viewpoint is absent in Syed works. Rather there is a keen sense of pictorial vision but immense love and respect for the Indian scene. Simple village roads, lanes, rough walls, village people, their animals and architecture, and animals in native landscape are observed with love, tenderness and care. His favorite animal Camel is captured in so many ways throughout his lifetime, that can be observed in this book.

In a way he shows us a mirror , a mirror in which we see an image of ourselves which is not seen by us. In the days when cameras were a very rare commodity and luxury, he captured India for all of us. An India which has gone by with its simplivity, quietness and gentle beauty. That is also possible because he was the kind of man who is Gentle, simple, straightforward, full
of insight about life, developing an inner vision and an aesthetic vision of a photographer. The book has captured him very well for the future generations. It is amust study artist for every visual practitioner.

Mahendra Damle

Painter & educationist practicing for the last 25 years

He has been involved in developing pedagogical tools for the courses in the field of- painting, sculpture, textile, fashion, furniture design, animation & dramatics. He is keen follower of visual process from the perspective of neurology, artistic experience and image creation.
Photography has been the area of the exploration from this perspective. He has written on art, art education and its process in newspapers & magazines. Currently he is the principal of Rachana Sansad Academy of fine arts and crafts Mumbai.