Homage to Homai . the begining -1992

The Economic Times, Sunday 31 May 1992

GALLERY

The woman who shot the best of them

The woman who shot memorable news picture of Gandhi and Nehru, lives today like a recluse in Baroda. She gave up photography she claims ‘when the riff raff came in ‘. Presented alongside are some of her refreshingly innocent work.

(Photofolio can’t be included. Sorry)

THERE WAS A curious report , some forty years ago , in The Statesman- dated May 14 1951. “When Mr Jinnah held his last press conference in Delhi (in 1947) an unknown press photographer caused a stir by toppling off a tall packing case on which she had perched, the better to ‘shoot’ the founder of Pakistan. Mr Jinnah’s frown was transformed into a smile when he saw the culprit was a woman and that, though prone on the floor she had the presence of mind to save her camera and her flashgun from harm … Four years later Mrs. Homai Vyarawalla has become the best known press photographer in the Capital. Efficient and non obstrusive she has rarely been beaten by a male competitor . She is probably the only professional woman press photographer in India. “

Today, Homai Vyarawalla lives in Baroda. Far away from all that bustle and activity. Born in a priestly family in Navasari , she graduated in Economics from St. Xaviers college , Bombay, and also got a diplomafrom the J J School of Arts. During this period she started working with her cousin(whom she married) helping him with his photographic and darkroom work. Her first photographic work was carried in the Illustrated Weekly of India.

Subsequently, the Vyarawallas moed to the British Far Eastern Information Bureau in Delhi with Homai acting as an assistant photographer to her husband. Within a few years, she had made her mark as an intrepid and inspired photojournalist.whoese work was distinguished by its spontaneity and ability to capture and ability to capture personalities in intimate moods.

PHOTOGRPAHS – There are more of them in the world than there are bricks, it is said. Photography, in the myriad of forms it has fathered, has revolutionized and recreated the human mind in more ways than have been studied. Its potential for propaganda is an undisputed fact. But rarely have photographers thought of the responsibility that goes with being a photographer.

Eugene Smith was one who did, resigning twice from LIFE magazine because he did not agree with the way his photographs were used. Misused, really. He had gone on to teach a course for professional photographers - Photography Made Difficult. A photographer was ‘responsible for any misuse of his pics’ he insisted. He is remembered, today, as the patron saint of ‘concerned’ photography and the‘responsible’ photographers.

Homai Vyarawalla is 79 today and, in her heydays, she too has photographed for LIFE magazine. She is forgotten and lives alone far from the city that she once ruled as the foremost press photographer of her time, the first woman photojournalist.

Those were euphoric days of a new and Independent Nation. Politicians were demigods. “They were heroes who had a dignity and self respect. Everyone respected them” she remembers partly explaining why she others had photographed them so much, creating images of majestic mythical supermen. Many of her images have become the icons by which those grand old men – the bapus and the chachas. Photographing the VIPs of the period she literally constructed their importance. Without her no political event was complete. Governor General Rajagopalachari even called her “a new Phenomenon”.

Vyarawalla kept this up till 1970, shooting spontaneous split second frames of the faces that we remember today. She stopped when security around the VIPs made it impossible “ to make any meaningful photographs” And more importantly, when the dignified and respected photographers and politicians of her time were replaced by a bunch of “squabbling newcomers” – photographers and politicians for whom she had no respect. She stopped when “the riff raff came in“ she remembers.

Today her old colleagues remember her as “ 24 carat gold : a thorough professional who had guts and the ethics .” She got out when the go getters came in.

SATISH SHARMA