History in the making
If every picture is worth a thousand words, then Kulwant Roy was probably the Bard of Indian photography. A chronological presentation of the prolific lensman’s works could be the best history lesson a schoolgoer could get.
Roy’s collection of candid moments of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, Mahatma Gandhi, and other stalwarts of early twentieth century India was inherited by his nephew, advertising photographer, Aditya Arya, in a container that remained unopened for more than two decades. And when he did open them, he chanced upon a treasure trove that brought along with it responsibilities. “These are pictures of national importance, you can’t be fooling around with them,” says Arya.
Safely housed and exhibited at his Gurgaon residence, the collection also includes rare negatives by Arya’s grandfather, M.P. Kedar. These invaluable frames that provide a peek into the past and help acquire a perspective on the present, he says. “These days people click thousands of pictures with their digital cameras and get one right. They don’t know what photography is,” he laments. So, to resurrect the photographic legacies that lay languishing Arya felt the need to setup the India Photo Archive Foundation to preserve and document these .
And the painstakingly preserved volumes of historical images are a testament of his determined efforts. The upkeep of the valuable prints and negatives, archiving them in polyester sheets, PH testing the paper, storing in a humidity-controlled atmosphere takes a lot of doing, but the maverick photographer says monetary aspects take backseat when one Is dealing with a national treasure. “The question is — what will we leave behind? I’m not bothered about the market, this is what I’ll leave behind for posterity,” says Arya.
His collection of cameras (the oldest one belonging from 1890) and photography equipment — some gifted, mostly his own — too are a sight to behold. And the images like that of the Indian Constitution being signed, Nehru hugging his grandson Rajiv Gandhi before leaving for a trip, or the one where he is all padded upto to go to bat on a cricket field are iconic, to say the least. “How many people have seen a photograph of the Indian Constitution being signed?” he asks showing the now restored and framed negative of when India became a Republic.
Aditya Arya can be contacted at
indiaphotoarchive@gmail.com
Post new comment