Lounge
An exhibition that paints photographer O.P. Sharma’s portrait
Summary
O.P. Sharma’s archive goes on view for the first time, giving a glimpse into the lesser-known facets of the photographer
At the Shridharani Gallery, located within the Triveni Kala Sangam, Delhi, one can see a black-and-white print of a rather vulnerable-looking Dimple Kapadia. Incidentally, this was the actor’s first-ever photo from Bobby, clicked accidentally at Prithviraj Kapoor’s studio in Mumbai. Another striking photograph—almost akin to a painted portrait—is of art historian Geeta Kapur, looking down in a sombre mood. It’s interesting how the portraits on display paint rather different personas— softer, more intimate—of well-known personalities. These are part of 150 vintage prints from O.P. Sharma’s archive, which is on view for the first time ever till 3 October.
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These images were produced in the dark rooms of Modern School Barakhamba Road, where he taught photography from 1958-2000, and the Triveni Kala Sangam, where he directed, 1980 onwards, the Camera Art Institute with his late wife, Chitrangada.
Within these darkened spaces, Sharma would work like a scientist, experimenting with various methods of photography that led to remarkable results—from salt prints to complex montages created by combining different techniques. A print of Kashmir’s Dal Lake, for instance, shows his experiment with tone separation, creating grey, black and white tones. The result is a haunting image of the place. The exhibition, presented by the Alkazi Foundation for the Arts and Art Heritage, also brings to the fore the rather unique life and times of the photographer himself.
Born in Agra—the family ran a sweets shop in the city— Sharma went on to study painting at Lucknow’s Christian College. His fascination with photography started after seeing American-Canadian photographer Yousuf Karsh’s portraits at the 1954 International Exhibition of the UP Amateur Photographic Association.
Soon after, he brought together his interests in Hindustani classical music, photography and Urdu poetry in his practice. It’s no wonder then that his portraits of legendary personalities such as Gangubai Hangal, Pandit Ravi Shankar, Siddheshwari Devi, Begum Akhtar, Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Sumitranandan Pant, S.H. Vatsyayan, among others, stand out in the show.
Sukanya Baskar, who has curated O.P. Sharma & the Fine Art of Photography, 1950s–1990s in collaboration with Rahaab Allana of the Alkazi Foundation, feels that the artist was one of the pioneers of the second movement of pictorialism. “This point of view, to see photographs as a visually artistic form and not just as documentation of reality or photojournalism, makes Sharma a significant modernist artist-photographer of our times," she adds.
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Also by teaching at educational institutions and founding salons and clubs such as the Amateur Photographic Society of Agra (1959) and Foto Arte Group (1968), Sharma contributed towards democratising the medium. Today, when a photo can be shot, edited and filtered within seconds with the use of digital technology, an exhibition such as this harks to the good old days of analogue photography. It offers a sepia-tinted throwback to the times of photo clubs, neighbourhood studios, and Kodak negatives.
The show, which was nearly two years in the making, presents a snapshot of nearly five decades of Sharma’s practice. For the curators, it was a fascinating experience to sift through nearly 600 of “pictorial experiments", besides catalogues, letters, brochures and magazine articles. The material was then grouped into several categories to reveal commissioned projects, experiments, and various genres, including landscapes such as cloud studies, and abstracts. His wife, herself an acclaimed artist-photographer, can be seen as his muse in many works in the show.
Sharma, now in his 80s, remembers all of the intricacies of the pictorial processes that he has developed by reading many magazines and journals on the subject. “In his view, photography, while being about aesthetics, is eventually led by scientific precision and the right amount of chemicals and solutions that are perfectly timed to bring out the prints," says Pronita Tripathi, writer and researcher at Alkazi Foundation for the Arts and Art Heritage.
A personal favourite from the show includes Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan’s portrait. The music maestro had his eyes shut tight while listening to his own song from years ago in Sharma’s Delhi studio in Delhi. “Maen aisa gaata tha pehle, ab kyun nahi? (I used to sing like this, why not now?’)," is what he mentioned to Sharma, who captured that moment. The photographer then juxtaposed the image with the swarmandal as an experiment. Someone might think that the doyen of Hindustani classical music is confined within a space, while to another viewer it may seem as if the swarmandal is his palace, wherein he is sitting in deep meditation. Whatever the perception might be, Sharma’s genius lies in revealing the vulnerability and inner chaos that might have swirled in Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan’s mind at the time.
Abhilasha Ojha is a Delhi-based art and culture writer.
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