Tribute to picture-makers
India’s first woman photojournalist, 97-year-old Homai Vyarawalla, received the first-ever national photo award for her contribution to the field in the pre and post partition period. The award was conferred on her by vice-president of India, M. Hamid Ansari.
Four photojournalists, Homai Vyarawalla, S. Paul, Benu Sen and K.G. Maheshwari, were conferred the awards, being given for the first time in order to commemorate the golden jubilee celebrations of Photo Division, a media unit of the Union information and broadcasting ministry. The awards include a cash prize of Rs 1.50 lakhs, a shawl, a memento and a citation.
The first recipient, Homai Vyarawalla, studied at the J.J. School of Art and started her career as a freelancer with Illustrated Weekly. Her depiction of political events have remained imprinted in public memory since several decades.
The second recipient S. Paul, 79 years of age, an eminent photojournalist and the first Indian to have been profiled with a portfolio of four pictures by the World’s oldest and prestigious The British Journal of Photography Annual 1967. In the “Pictorialists” category, the Life Time Achievement Award was conferred to Benu Sen of Kolkata, 79-year-old, who has authored several books on photography. The second recipient in the category was K.G. Maheshwari (88) from Mumbai.
Speaking on the occasion, vice-president M. Hamid Ansari stated that photographs and photography were now a part of our daily existence. “They are taken for granted and the only question ever asked is about technology and technique. Both were important; both evolved and made an impact on the human mind,” he stated.
I&B minister Ambika Soni stated that in order to keep pace with new formats, it was necessary to innovate, “Digitalisation was the road to the future”. In photography, it enabled us to preserve the rich visual heritage of our country. She lauded the Photo Division for its initiative to convert conventional images into the digital format.
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