Priceless Memoir by Ashwathi Photography

Priceless Memoir A Private Photo Collection of Mr. Amrut Desai

Taj Mahal, 1965

This dissertation is an academic project of National Institute of Design

Student Name: Ashwathi Vijaykumar

Course : MDes Photography Design’13 Guide : Rishi Singhal

Priceless Memoir

A Private Photo Collection of Mr. Amrut Desai

Ashwathi Vijaykumar

Amrut Desai and his wife Usha, Ajanta Caves,1967

Dedicated to Leena Aunty and Amrut Uncle

Contents Preface Beginning of Photography Photographer - Mr. Amrut Desai Family Portraits Wildlife Landscape A walk through the 70â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Acknowledgement Bibliography

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Uganda, 1968

Preface

“It is through living that we discover ourselves, at the same time as we discover the world around us.” - Henri Cartier-Bresson My journey in photography so far has always been fascinating right from the inception. I was

introduced to both digital as well as film photography. It all begun with an absolute zeal and inquis-

itiveness to understand the concepts of photography from core and raise every practical aspect of it

to an advanced level. Having said that, it wasn’t the “bed full of roses” scenario, though it might look like at the outset and it took me a considerable amount of time to enhance the learning experience

and develop that patience in me for making this a really wonderful time blended with creativity and discovery. Certainly, I very well knew that this is just the beginning and an unstoppable part of my career & life.

Looking at my passion, my beloved aunt surprisingly gifted me an Autoflex Twin Lens Reflector

(TLR) and Zeiss Ikon Contessa a range finder. As they are sounding, they were indeed pretty old,

however with fixes here and there I had it working in its best way possible and started using them

quite extensively for my work. Slowly and gradually my curiosity rose to an altogether different level, for knowing the working and history behind such cameras. As a matter of fact, the more I read about

photography the more I was diving deep into this ocean, with plethora of information & techniques to quench my thirst.

All these factors turned out to be a driving force and one of the major reasons for archiving the his-

tory of these cameras along with the photographer as a part of my dissertation project. Every one of us has met so many people in our life, all with different personalities.

Understandably, only few of them or in some cases just one person leave that lasting impression and ul-

timately become the source of inspiration in some or the other way. As far as photography is concerned, for me it was none other than my grand uncle Mr. Amrut Desai , 86 years old, who without a shell of a

doubt has really influenced me with his impeccable work in this field and his worthy wisdom, for I know will definitely help me in my photography voyage somewhere down the line.

Next step involved going through his work and after a fruitful candid conversation I realized that he

used to love photographing anything that comes to his mind at that particular moment, perhaps that

was one of the best part of his work and the reason behind my project. Albeit, he never had that liberty and support during his phase of life to enrol in any institute as a student and become a professional

photographer himself but his photographs has a different story to tell. Composition comes so naturally

in his work that even in 2015 it is astounding, especially when digital photography is ruling the industry. It just makes me ponder more in the beauty of photography in early ages.

Interestingly, his picture has touched upon many genres not targeting one specific or limited to one. I

firmly agree that itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the moment thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s been taken in the best possible way and the subject also matters the most.

His photographs had such a depth in them and speak so much about everything around him and of

him. Professionally, he was an Assistant Police Commissioner and also part of crime branch. This doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t really reflect the way he used to click pictures; it was his persona that could be witnessed in every wash. Adventure, moments, time spent with family and friends, his interest in wildlife and landscape is something truly visible in his pictures and that sums it up about his work. 16

Complete Daguerreotype Outfit

Beginning of Photography

Knowledge of the optical principle of the camera obscura images can be traced back to Aristotle; its use as an aid in drawing, to Giovanni Battista della Porta. The photographic camera derives directly from the camera obscura which was originally, as its Latin name implies, a dark room, with a small hole in the wall or window-shutter through which an inverted image of the view outside is projected on to the opposite wall or a white screen. A clearer description was given early in the eleventh century by the Arabian scholar Alhazen in his work on optics, which later became the main source-book of Roger Bacon and other European scholars.

‘If the image of the sun at the time of an eclipse – provided it is not a total one passes through a small round hole on to a plane surface opposite, it will be crescent-shaped… The image of the sun only this property when the hole is very small.’ During the next five centuries the use of the camera obscura for the observation of solar eclipses without harming the eyes by looking directly at the sun referred to by a number of scholars including Roger Bacon. The first published illustration of it is contained in De radio astronomico et geometrico liber (1545) by a Dutch physician and Mathematician Reiner Gemma Frisius. By the eighteen century the use of the camera obscura was common knowledge among educated people; long descriptions of the apparatus were contained in most on optics, treatises on painting, and books of popular recreation.

The first to try to fix the images of the camera obscura by chemical means were the brothers Joseph Nicephore and Claude Niepce, officers in the French army and navy respectively, while stationed at Cagliari, capital of Sardinia, in 1793. The world’s first successful photograph was taken by Nicephore Niepce on a pewter plate is 1826, using his first professionally made camera supplied by Parisian optician Charles Chevalier.

The appearance of sunshine on both sides of the courtyard is due to the long exposure if about eight hours on a summer day. Niepce gave the name Heliographie (sun drawing) both to photographs made in the camera and to engravings copied by superposition. Nowadays photography is completely taken for granted that it is difficult to realize how magical the idea seemed to Daguerreâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s contemporaries that Nature could be made to produce a picture spontaneously.

The only process that eventually established itself to some extent as a rival to the daguerreotype was the Calotype, the improved version of photogenic Drawing invented by William Henry Fox Talbot, an English Landowner, scholar and scientist. The Pioneers of photography made their first experiments with simple box camera obscura, often home-made. The First photographic camera on sale to the public was advertised in June 1839 by a London optician, Franc is West, for Photogenic Drawing. Soon smaller models and folding cameras were designed for travelling.

From the first announcement of the daguerreotype on 7th January 1839 a certain disappointment was felt at its inability to record colours, which were instead translated into varying shades of monochrome. Louis Ducos du Hauron made the greatest contribution to the evolution of color photography in the nineteenth century. (Sir) James Clerk-Maxwell in a lecture on the young/Helmholtz theory of color vision at the Royal Institution, London, in May 1861 demonstrated that every possible shade of color could be made up from the primary colors red, blue and green.

Like all other experimenters trying to solve the problem of color photography Ducos du Hauron was seriously impeded by the comparative insensitivity of photographic negative materials to colors other than blue and violet. Even the most correct theory was bound to lead to inbalanced color pictures until good orthochromatic material was available. Ducos du Hauronâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s earliest surviving color photograph, a view of Anglouleme dates from 1877, and though taken after the introduction of certain dyestuffs which had the effect of increasing the sensitivity to other colors, the carbon print is far from prefect.

Louis Ducos du Hauron, View from Angouleme, 1877

The processing of all modern color films is complicated and requires controlled laboratory conditions

and for this reason is performed by the manufacturers or their authorized agents properly equipped for the work. Since 1950 leading manufacturers of photographic materials in many parts of the world have marketed color films under their own trade names. They are all more or less based on the Agfacolor patent which, as an enemy invention, became available to the allied powers. Bombay (Mumbai)

Early photography flourished throughout India, with particular vigour in the city of Bombay (Mum-

bai) British colonizers and Indigenous. Indians were both active within just a few years of the mediums Invention.

Long before the introduction of moving picture, and long before Bollywood, Bombay was the Indian

city where the photographic needs of the public â&#x20AC;&#x201C; including more affluent indigenous Indians as well

british were catered to Bombay was the commercial heart of the country, and therefore more upto date with new technology and development. Already by the 1850â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s more Indians were practicing this new method in Bombay than anywhere else in the country, perhaps in Asia.

Mr. Amrut Desai and his wife Usha, 1995

photographer - Mr. Amrut Desai

Born in Surat, India, in 1929, Amrut Desai started amateur photography in the early 1950â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s. His love

for books and keen interest in art is something he treasured from an early age. From an academics standpoint he completed his intermediate in science at Navsari in Surat. Having lost his father at a

very young age, it was his maternal uncle who took care of him and his family. Destiny brought him

in Mumbai for further education and earning. He started to work as a teacher with a wage of 25 Rs/- , soon after he applied in police and got selected too.

His brother used to work at Bank of Baroda (Kenya). He had gifted him his first camera an Autoflex

TLR camera, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a German make. He used this extensively which is very evident in his collection. His

second camera was a Contessa Zeiss from Scotland and He also owned an Agfamatic 4008. His fondness for photography increased every passing day with these cameras as his possession and thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s when this interest of photographing started too.

He initiated this passion in him by mostly photographing his family and friends, travel pictures and

wildlife to name a few. All his images are stacked together as a part of his private collection which he considers them to be the most precious and valuable asset to him. He used three different cameras

to photograph, TLR Autoflex, Agfamatic 4008 camera and Zeiss Ikon Contessa. He primarily photo-

graphed anything that interested him. Professionally, at his time he was a man with his own vision to serve the country and he did it seamlessly for 38 years by working in Police department. Although, being in the police service, a holiday or vacation was a distant dream.

However, he had the privilege to meet his brothers who were staying in Africa and traveled to Alaska as

well and Canada was also one of the destinations where he visited quite a number of times as his family resided there as well.

Mr. Desai was an adept photographer and began photographing more extensively. Till date, he follows

his passion by photographing, but is now inclined with the digital methodology to be on par with the

modernization. Heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s pretty comfortable in point and shoot camera, something which comes at ease to

him at this age. After his retirement he has travelled a lot in India naming few places like Jodhpur, Amritsar, Kashmir, Dalhousie, Chandigarh, Jaipur, Dharamshala and the entire south belt of India but now he photographs with digital camera and feed the images on to his phone and computer.

The timeline of this collection portrayed in the book is 1960 to 1995. A collection that shows mainly

Family, wildlife and landscapes

Family Portraits

In this series of family photographs, the background and the

dressing style speak so much to the viewer about the 70â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s. Most of the pictures are dominated by time spent away from home on

holidays or days out. Some smile, some wander, some look away and some dress up for the photograph. These photographs were posted with letters and messages written behind it. Fam-

ily photographs kept are treasured less for their quality than

for their context. These photographs are important historical documents to me and narrates varies stories to me.

Usha, Leena and Varsha, Matheran, 1968 31

Varsha and her school friends, 1970 32

Varsha and her school friends, 1970 33

Leena and Varsha on house terrace, Mumbai, 1965

Varsha on a field trip, 1971 36

Neighborâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s daughter, 1971 39

Nephew Ashok with a college friend with Dharmendra, 1972 41

Usha and other family members, 1960 42

Children playing on the beach, 1961

Usha and Grandchild,North India, 1965

Usha and Grandchildren, North India, 1980

London, 1965 50

Wildlife

In his quest to conservation and interest into wildlife photogra-

phy, he travelled to African countries numerous times. He photographed this series of wildlife in their natural environment.

When he talks about his wildlife photography he still remembers the entire incident. The images are from such a close range without any tele lens, that it shows his curiosity in his subject. He used to record these moments when animals were in action

or capture them when there is a kill. He was patient enough and took the photograph at the right moment.

Zambia, 1975 54

Zambia, 1975

Zambia, 1985

Zambia, 1975

Serengeti National Park, 1993

Serengeti National Park, 1993 66

Serengeti National Park, 1993

Serengeti National Park, 1993 71

Serengeti National Park, 1993

Serengeti National Park, 1993 80

Landscape

The landscapes in this series are mostly from Alaska and London. Some of landscapes are like painting of rivers, lakes, moun-

tains and clouds floating. His photographs show such calmness and peaceful environment with no human intervention at all

which is spectacular to watch. He spent most of his time taking

photographs and landscape is something that always drew his attention. His landscapes are mostly visually dramatic.

United Kingdom, 1975

Alaska, 1995 88

Alaska,1995 91

Alaska, 1995

Alaska, 1990

Alaska, 1995 96

Alaska, 1990

Alaska, 1995

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A walk through the 70’s

I was interested in photography by taking or looking at photographs. But when I started reading

photographs I realized I was diving deeper in photography and the story that each photograph actu-

ally tries to convey. Some photographs speak so much about the history, background, style and details of that time frame. When I was going through Mr. Amrut Desai’s collection, I could see so much and could read the time period 1960-1970’s, especially in family and the group pictures

In the photograph ‘Varsha and her school friends, 1970’, only a few are looking at the photographer

while most of them are looking away in a different direction. Though they are positioned to take a

group photograph, knowing it’s not a candid shot they look at different directions. Year 1970, eight young women were dressed up fashionably. When culture and clothing was of utmost importance, they wore short dresses and Salwar suit with jacket and different hairstyles. Twenty years earlier,

such clothes were a rare sight to see. Among the young today, its too common to dress up like this.

It was also interesting to see in the photo ‘Leena and Varsha on house terrace, Mumbai, 1965’ where

his two daughters are photographed, the location, hairstyle, their frocks are very similar. It’s inter-

esting how he is thinking and photographing his portraits here, his composition is very simple. His approach is such ordinary subjects which in their ordinariness are extraordinary representatives.

In ‘Neighbor’s daughter, 1971’ photograph, the woman is wearing a short dress with a belt around

her waist, it was taken in 1971. Her hair had been cut short just like the 70’s movie star. It’s in, Mumbai and the urban landscape behind the woman is so developed and modernized.

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This photograph preserves instant appearances of the city and essence of the 70’s. In the photograph ‘Page 49, London UK, 1965’, the man wearing a brown coat, the picture was shot in United Kingdom, the landscape is countryside which goes without saying. His tie is unusually short and his pants are neither bell bottom nor straight. His hairstyle is also onto one side. His glares are also very retro from today’s perspective.

In his series of wildlife photographs he presents an image of the animal as deeply separate from the human. The photographs show us animals we could not normally see. Some photographs are shot at very close range and he is not using any tele lens. In the early days of photography, it was difficult to get a photograph of wildlife due to slow lenses and the low sensitivity of photographic media. He photographed only in broad day light as he didn’t have flash to do so. He has visited Africa numerous times and photographed the wildlife. In some pictures the animals have that gaze back at him, straight into the camera. And about his landscape photographs he shows little or no human activity and are created in the pursuit of a pure, unsullied depiction of nature devoid of human influence, instead featuring subjects such as strongly defined landforms, weather, and ambient light.

In practical terms this means that he decides what he wants before he takes the picture, works slowly, yet swiftly, formally asks people to pose for him. His subject is looking at us; we are looking at the subject, its been arranged like that, unless someone tries to look away. But there is a similar sense of frontality in many of his other pictures of landscapes or objects or buildings. Thus, without any use of anecdote, he turns his subjects into storytellers. The elephant narrates itself, the beach where the hyena stares back at you recounts it. The wife speaks about tradition, her saree draped in Gujarati style.

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His photographs have only taught me something or the other. His attitude towards life and his photography has encouraged me to a great extent

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Acknowledgements

It is my privilege to undertake the project as my dissertation and looking at the collection of my Grand Uncle Mr.Amrut Desai and listening to the stories he had to share. I am deeply indebted to Mrs. Leena Damodhar, my beloved aunt, whose motivation and timely support in all of her busy schedule has helped me to complete this project. I am extremely grateful to Karan Punjabi for his assistance and suggestions throughout my project and finally proof reading the same. I thank Poornima Marh for helping in survive all the stress and supporting me throughout. A special thanks to my family, of course, for all their love, support, encouragement and motivation. I thank Shiho Kito for her expert advice on book designing. I thank National Institute of Design for permission to include copyrighted photographs as part of my dissertation.

Lastly, I extend my gratitude towards Rishi Singhal, Course Coordinator, Photography Design, for his understanding, wisdom, patience and continuous encouragement in bringing this project to successful completion

Although leaflet title â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Acknowledgementâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t represent my true feelings for all these persons. I feel very much thankful to all of them for their encouragements and giving me all the moral support required and to all helping me in making this endeavor a reality. 107

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Bibliography Gernsheim, Helmut Gernsheim in collaboration with Alison. A Concise History of Photography. New York: Grosset and Dunlap, 1965. Photo Credits Complete Daguerreotype Outfit, A concise history of Photography, Helmut Gernsheim in collaboration with Alison Gernsheim (Page 16)

Louis Ducos du Hauron, View from Angouleme, 1877, A concise history of Photography, Helmut Gernsheim in collaboration with Alison Gernsheim (Page 19)

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