AAW #137

The woods are lovely, dark and deep. But I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep, and miles to go before I sleep. -Robert Frost “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”

The weather in Ahmedabad is colder than usual, but the hearts of Amdavadis are warmer as usual. Every week when our Art Weekly’s number is excelling we keep on reminding ourselves and the people that this is just beginning. Together we have taken responsibility to make the events and happenings of the city more and more enriching. It is a never-ending job, but together we will make our people consume the right content. Creative Yatra’s approach to compiling culture and creativity rather than entertainment under a single banner is none of a kind initiative in Ahmedabad. Our motivation lies in your potential of doing, and the 137th edition of AAW is an evidence of how beautiful the citizens are carving its city.

The motivation behind 137th AAW is Kanu Gandhi, grandnephew of Mahatma Gandhi and a photographer par excellence. It is because of him that the world can celebrate the legacy of India’s Father of the Nation visually. As a member of his staff who lived with him in various ashrams, Gandhi created an archive of photographs of Bapu from 1938 until he was assassinated in 1948. He was dotingly called as Bapu’s Hanuman, and Bapu allowed him to photograph only on three conditions – Ashram will never fund his activities, Bapu will never pose for him, and he will use no flash. The self-trained photographer also made films on Gandhi, and his collections were oblivious until German collector Peter Ruhe acquired them in the 1980s. The Sabarmati Ashram purchased the collection from Ruhe in Rs. 5 million in 2007, which came up for selling in 2012 creating a national controversy. Several shots in Richard Attenborough’s Gandhi were shot according to the bio-photographer of Gandhi’s perspective, and the first international exhibition of his work was done in Leicestershire Museum and Art Gallery, UK.