NOTE:
One is more than aware of the inadequacy inherent in striving to portray the chronicles of photographic practice in India within the restricted dimensions of a single essay. The intention here is not to outline the growth of a technology or to seek historical novelties, but rather to survey the introduction and development of the medium of photography in India and to examine the status of contemporary photography used for creative expression in the country.
IMAGE-MAKING
AND PHOTOGRAPHY IN INDIA: AN OVERVIEW
Civilization in India is both more ancient and alive than in most other countries of the world. Only a few contain such a diversity of customs, rituals, beliefs and languages. This fabric of civilization is the result of a well-knit pattern of myths and values in a social order that evolved through many centuries of gradual fusion.
Indian art is the most perceptible and distinct evidence of this fabric built into the creative design of this society. Art in India concerns with the spirituality of the society and in turn reflects the familiar experiences of the people and their cultural sensibilities. According to Hindu heritage 'art' or 'silpa' includes the entire spectrum of creativity in ritual, skills, craft and developmental imagination.
Although the notion of photography being a medium of art and creative expression is relatively recent in India, there exists a practice of this medium that can be traced from the days of British rule when the camera and photography were introduced in the Indian sub-continent.
Photography reached the shores of Indian the pre-mutiny days in the 1840's, just seven months after Louis Daguerre publicly unveiled it to the world in Paris in 1839. The first to fix the camera image in permanent form however was Joseph Niepce, who in 1826 used a pewter plate made sensitive to light with bitumen. In less than a hundred years a graphic revolution had transpired along with methods for creating, conserving and circulating images of people, places and events. No one could then have predicted the impact this medium would have on modern life.
In India, the British used photography to document and describe to their homeland, the exotic landscapes and people of a land they had occupied. They produced 'books' that depicted the awesome architecture as well as native customs and culture. The British rulers at the time encouraged photography. the military supported it and army personnel were encouraged to make photographs.
The archaeological and ethnological surveys, though born out of curiosity and scientific motivation, were not really objective documentation. The photographers were selective in their treatment of the subjects they photographed and made images that implied a sense of their being ambassadors of a distinguished civilization. They also indicated their ambition for commercial success. After all, the British had not initially come to India to explore the culture of the country but rather to trade as merchants.
Like in the West, the Indian artist at the time attempted to adjust his craft to the new trend and technology by imitating the photographer and producing images that had neither the immediacy of the photograph nor the essence of an original work of art. By the 1850s the photographer had taken over the subjects of the artist in India.
In addition to this, the artist's sources of sponsorship and employment also decreased. With the assault of British colonization and with the factory and mill produced goods came Western artists, art and techniques. Traditional sponsorship of the arts was modified and only a few large courts had sufficient revenues and interest to sustain the Indian court painter Thus, Indian artistic traditions that had flourished for centuries simply died. Without patronage, Indian arts and the artists lost their creativity. The introduction of the Daguerreotype and later Talbot's calotype (early photographic processes) eventually deteriorated the status of the artist in India. With the extended popularity of the new medium of photography came the decline of the painter in India.
On the Indian sub-continent, Indian businessmen and members of the ruling families took up photography. Men of high rank and even Maharajahs got involved in the new art with enthusiasm. The Maharajahs used photography to have portrays made, record their possessions and document important engagements and events in their lives.
The craving of the people to have their "likeness taken" spread fast and by 1870 there were commercial photographers in every large city in India. The distinct creation and usage of the photographic portrait in India has suggested that the camera was used very differently from that in the West and that Indian photographers were able to avoid Western notions of representation of space and dimensional in the images they created.
The large British photographic firms were well equipped and famed and it became impossible for small Indian photography businesses to contest and survive. To add to this, the difficulties faced by photographers in India were tremendous. They had to deal with the adverse tropical conditions, their supplies were limited and they had to experiment with available materials. They had even to modify their techniques to get the best possible results under these circumstances.
The opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 shortened the sea passage to India and made it easier for photographers to access photographic equipment and materials. The introduction of the dry plate in 1870 and the Kodak camera in 1888 saw the dawn of a new era in photography in the country. The new portable camera and the dry film process allowed amateurs an ease with which they could photograph.
This made the medium popular and accessible, Eventually every large city had at least one major camera club. These clubs organized exhibitions, contests, lectures and published photographic periodicals. Middle class Indians viewed photography as a sign of advancement. Their craving for status and acceptance by the British prompted them to embrace this new found medium.
After the British left India in 1947, the photography clubs (which by then had large numbers of Indian members) continued to operate with the momentum they had gathered in the past. Indian photographers did not feel the need for any change - either in the way the clubs operated or in the subject matter that was considered important to photographic art. Pictorialism, a leftover from the British photo-societies, was widely encouraged and promoted in India through these photo-clubs. Photography was used to explore the medium's formal character. Most images that were made were devoid of "personal" expression and in turn were substituted by a faithful reproduction of the cliché. This involved duplicating the traditionally accepted imagery in an attempt to claim ownership of them as one's own. Personal concerns were replaced with a desire to gain acceptance and applaud from fellow photographers. This condition was in part a cultural stratagem that prescribed certain unalterable guidelines for progeny to follow.
In modern India, photography is most visible in advertising. Commercial and advertising photography produced in the country is of considerable professional and technical refinement. A recent growth in the Indian economy accompanied by expanded middle-class consumerism has created an explosion in the print media. This in turn provides a base for constant commercial work. There is a recent noticeable trend in advertising to imitate imagery found in the West. This may in part be due to a colonial mentality that prompts imitation of things that are Western in appearance and contents.
Photography in India is also seen practiced substantially in the realm of photojournalism and documentary photography. Most of this work qualifies as photography for newspapers and photo-features for magazines. Among those practicing this genre of photography, there are a few who are exploring and using the medium to document the effects of a rapidly changing social environment on traditional society. They use photography as a tool to comment on the prevailing socio-economic conditions of the country.
The idea that photography can be used to produce art and that it is an independent medium of personal expression is yet to be fully perceived and understood by the majority of photographers in the country. Those that have become aware of the medium's artistic potential have been ethically inspired to make social and political statements rather than deal with the art idea.
Here one notices a reluctance to deal with imagery that entertains aesthetic experimentation for its own sake and photographs that depict personal and private realities, Obviously missing is the absence of technical and conceptual manipulation of photographic imagery.
One of the reasons for this can be linked to the audience that the photographer is trying to address. Images that photographers make, have a direct relationship to the environment he or she exists in. Since there are many dialects at the disposal of the photographer, the selection of subject matter and the artist's concerns are at times governed by the choice of the audience that responds to the photographer's work. It therefore becomes necessary to view the works of native Indian photographers with a different set of aesthetic considerations than those of other photographers from around the globe.
Photography in the country is generally self-taught. Minimal formal training is available at few institutions that treat photography as a practical adjunct to their commercially oriented design departments. In the few existing fine arts departments, photography is not considered to have much relevance to the curriculum. Besides, the fact that equipment and photographic raw materials are very expensive for the average Indian, prohibits those interested in the medium from engaging in any kind of photographic activity. This again leaves no room for aesthetic investigation or experimentation.
We are however, currently witnessing a community in which photographers, critics and writers are beginning to interact with each other, criticize and contest the creation of others and take stands, This stimulus is compelling photographers to reconsider the placement of their photographic imagery within newer aesthetic and socio-cultural contexts. The image-makers are starting to use photography to probe the essence of an ancient culture symbolized in the familiar events, places and people they photograph every day.
They are also beginning to examine newer concepts of the art-idea, alter photographic intentions and utilize aesthetic considerations in their image-making process. This is particularly noticeable in lecture and workshop situations where their willingness to analyze images for meaning go beyond the photograph's immediate appearances. This process will work towards a better understanding of one's own work and that of others and at the same time bring on an expanded knowledge and appreciation of this art.
In order for photography to sustain its growth as an expressive medium in India, there is an urgent need for art critics who can address the medium intelligently in its own language, galleries that display and sell photographs and organizations that concern themselves with an academic pursuit of this medium. A conducive environment needs to be created for a serious consideration of the medium and its potential.
Indian photography currently finds itself having to deal with the social and contextual circumstances within which it exists. In doing so, it is being forced to explore those aspects of photography that are used for personal expression. With this investigation, the concepts of "fine art" and "self expression" as perceived in the Indian context and how photography as a medium of expression differs from painting, sculpture, poetry and literature within the Indian setting will become apparent
Is it then possible that photography as a visual medium, western in character, will always remain foreign to the Indian environment? Will a culture not always embrace that which is not innate in itself? Will a true synthesis take place that enables photography, just as the novel borrowed from the West, take on a dynamic new life in its Indian environment? The general tendency in India to borrow and conserve without rejecting that which is obsolete also applies to the photographic medium This constricts actual synthesis. The question still remains as to whether experimentation with these borrowed forms and techniques will eventually result in things uniquely Indian.
Photography in India has made it evident in some ways that it is possible to embrace the significance of one's own culture and at the same time recognize and distill the socio-cultural ideas brought in from the West. When Indian photographers photograph in India and in other parts of the world, they carry with them a point of view and an aesthetic that is both Indian and Western. In this context, to see them strictly as Indian photographers just because of their Indian ancestry would be misleading.
The continuous interaction of the traditional artistic ideals of the present day Indian society with ones imported from abroad will result in the development of the language of the artists and their techniques and a cross-cultural understanding of the medium. Hopefully, the photographers will gain a sense of the alternatives, a perspective on their own culture based approach and a heightened sensitivity to the relationship between photography and native cultural factors.
It is evident that recent photography in India has its traits inlaid within the structure of a regional understanding of the medium and that photography is currently being utilized in a manner that allows for its adaptation from a Western to an Indian sensibility. It is exciting to witness the distinctive statements and unique expressions it is making while in this transitional stage.
Baltimore USA, July 23, 1992