AAW #136

With Ahmedabad Art Weekly edition 136, begins the month of December, that promises to give city a string of dainty cultural events. Setting the tone for the next few weeks, this weeks list boasts of stunning variety. Experimental Plays, Musical do’s, Photography Exhibits and Engaging Arts show. Winters are the time when Ahmedabad culture landscape blooms with scores of events. The weather is pitch perfect for open to sky events and augments the mood of an aesthetics reveler.

This weeks inspiration for the AAW sketch is the legendary photographer from Gujarat, Kishor Parekh. Credited for revolutionizing photo journalism in India, Parekh’s work has an immense influence on the subject. His short stint as a photo journalist at Hindustan Times, between 1961-67, was enough to impact the entire industry. Never before a photographer was credited in media, never before newspapers carried photo essays – his powerful and monumental work completely and permanently altered the visual aspect of newsprint in India. The Sino Indian  War, The Tashkent Summit are among the key events that brought his unique work in focus. He could blend realism with his inherent compassion towards humanity, which made his photographs much more than visual documentation. In latter part of his career he shifted to Hong Kong and worked for magazines to cover South Asia.

His timeless work, that makes his contribution to photojournalism insurmountable is his work on Bangladesh liberation war, that got converted into the epic photo book ‘Bangladesh – A Brutal Birth’. This collection is considered among the best war photography work in the world. Such was the power of his photographs that the Indian Government made this book the official document of the 1971 Bangladesh war. We salute the passion and craft of Kishor Parekh and wish that his influence stays on for generations to come.

Illustration : Nilesh Ramani