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T.S. NAGARAJAN
dates:
1932 - 2014 Karnataka, India
bio:
Widely acclaimed photo-journalist, consultant photographer to UNICEF
T. S. Nagarajan is one of the foremost chroniclers of social change in India. His work encompasses a great variety of themes, places and moods and is marked by strength and directness. Apart from their high craftsmanship, his pictures have intellectual depth; they make one think. The interaction of tradition and modernity fascinates him. His photographs on the induction of technology into rural life and on themes such as family planning and the spread of education have been internationally published.
He has carried out photographic essays on Indira Gandhi and Sanjay Gandhi and has edited a number of picture books including 'India: Portrait of a People'.
He has held numerous one-man shows and received many national and international awards in photography. He latest book of photography is focussing on ancestral and turn-of-the-century homes in various parts of India.
1977 Unesco Prize, Tokyo
1982 exhibitions a.o.: “An Eye for India”, London
“Interiors of Indian Homes”, Oxford
“Pratibimba”, Moscow’
1987 PATA Gold Award
Grand Concours Kodachrome International Contest, Paris,
1993 NCPA, Bombay
Consultant photographer to UNICEF
Worked for the government of India in a variety of capacities.
T.S.NAGARAJAN was a member of CIRCLE-24, took part in group shows in the Netherlands, Belgium, Japan, Finland and Scotland and was also very well represented in 'the Other Way of Seeing', exhibition on the Indian way of visualising in photography on show in various countries in Europe.
“I believe that a country is people. While photographing people, a photographer neither petrifies them, nor does he make them act. They move, they work, they laugh, they suffer. And he himself becomes part of their movement, their work, their laughter and their pain. He gets involved”.
Brother of the photojournalist T.S. Satyan, T.S. Nagarajan is amongst the pioneers of social change through the arts in India. A renowned photojournalist and a consultant photographer to UNICEF, Nagarajan has candidly captured a variety of themes ranging from people and their emotions, to their environments and surrounding landscapes. Nagarajan’s intentions have always been to create social awareness through his images. Not only does he document a situation with marksman-like precision, but also stirs up a whirlwind of emotion within the viewer, highlighting the plight of his subjects and the need for social change in India.
read more: www.saffronart.com
PAST AUCTIONS (on Saffronart )
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10-11 December 2008
T S NAGARAJAN
Print on paper 14.5 x 9.5 in
winning bid $1,797 / Rs 86,250
www.saffronart.com/artists/t-s-nagarajan
BOOK Title T.S. Nagarajan: Vanishing Homes of India
Author T. S. Nagarajan
Publisher HECAR Foundation, 2013
ISBN 8192819000, 9788192819006
Length 140 pages
'Homes with a Soul', by T.S. NAGARAJAN
"These are glimpses of some of the interiors I have seen through my camera during my search for old homes in the country. Most of them are over a century old, still surviving the onslaught of modernity. Some have managed to retain their old glory; others are on the verge of extinction. None have been abandoned. Life persists, even as a flicker, in all. I have travelled all over India in an effort to chronicle their presence. It is an attempt at making a definitive photodocumentation of homes, old homes, whose interiors retain some evidence of the life-style of the period. This is important for posterity's sake, as most of these structures are under threat. This slice of Indian heritage needs to be preserved before any record of the past is lost forever. It is a race against time, a cry for conservation."
T.S. Nagarajan
links:
T.S. Nagarajan: Vanishing Homes of India Hardcover – 1 January 2013by T. S. Nagarajan (Author), Geeta Simoes (Contributor), Umaima Mulla-Feroze (Editor), & 1 More
Hardcover
ISBN-10 : 8192819000
ISBN-13 : 978-8192819006
Publisher : The HECAR Foundation (1 January 2013)
Language: : English
Amazon.in
do read more about T.S.Nagarajan here: www.luminous-lint.com/app/photographer/T_S__Nagarajan/A/
and here: Remembering T.S. Nagarajan
h www.indiaofthepast.org/ts-nagarajan/stories-about-men/pearl-water-lotus-leaf
Nagarajan has three books to his credit — ‘The Pearl of Water on a Lotus Leaf and Other Memories’ and ‘Self-portrait, The story of my life’. A book of his pictures, ‘Vanishing Homes of India’ was released by Mani Ratnam and N Ram last month.
Read more at: www.deccanherald.com/content/387158/t-s-nagarajan-passes-away.html 11-02-2014
Fascinated by the magnificent doorways of traditional Indian homes, T.S. Nagarajan portrays the amazing grace of some of these awesome entrances.
"I had hardly imagined that a mere door could evoke a spark of creativity within me, until I happened to see, through the eye of my camera, my three-year-old daughter silhouetted against the door of an ancient house in Pondicherry. Somehow it made meaning to me. Rich or poor, an Indian home is more than a mere house; it is the nucleus of a tradition. The door is its symbol. In its conception lies embedded a simple philosophy. This door is a gentle reminder that while there is an inside and an outside to life, it is the inside that has the qualities of a sanctum, it is a sentiment generated by a contemplative culture. The carvings and paintings merely seek to make this culture vocal.
In this sanctum life vibrates to the rhythm of a cherished tradition. The old and the young alike are partakers of it. The security it offers in times of need is taken for granted. The house might disintegrate with the weight of forgotten years, but the ancient door is carefully preserved. It gets reinstated in the new structure to recall fond memories. They are the cherished milestones in the family's history. The bride crosses the threshold to the sound of drums and pipe music. She is welcomed as the harbinger of fortune. The newborn infant is gently carried in, to the tune of welcoming songs and the chant of priests. In the South, the housewife cleans and decorates the threshold the first thing in the morning with floral designs. At dusk, the first lamp to be lit is the one that brightens the entrance. Invitations from relatives for weddings and auspicious gatherings are confirmed with turmeric and rice grains placed outside the doorway. Fortunately, modernity has not erased the traditional values of the belief that an open door is a sign of generosity. My camera comes alive when it encounters one."
written and photographs by T.S. NAGARAJAN
TAJ magazine, vol.16 no 4, 1987
photographs in the exhibition:
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