A century's keeper
A school inspection, a resignation and a brushstroke gone wrong- are snapshots that add up to the life of centenarian and celebrated photographer Pranlal Patel who was feted by the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting with a Lifetime Achievement Award last Thursday. Excerpts from an interview...A version has appeared on Indian Express, do follow the url to read that ...
LAKSHMI AJAY , 30 MARCH
Among other things, 104-year-old Patel esconced at his Ahmedabad home recalls with glee is the alteration with a school inpector that led to his resignation as a primary school teacher, studying under the city's art doyenne Ravishankar Rawal as a painter and then giving it all up for his lifelong tryst with the humble camera.
"I wanted more excitement than my 11 to 4 job as a school teacher. I started out in 1933 with funds from friends as an outdoor photographer, self-taught at a time when photographers were a rarity. I would cycle across Ahmedabad with my Box camera sending my photographs to dailies in Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai and started being paid handsomely for editors who would fill out pages with my pictures," recalls Patel who was born in 1910.
Patel's journey from a mere hobbyist to a purist evolved with India's freedom movement as he says, "I used to click pictures for the British Government and secretly work for the freedom movement by using aliases. This was a foolproof way not to get imprisoned." More anecdotes of the heady days trickle as he says, "Two photographs I took that come to mind are of Gujarati freedom fighter Jaymal Jayantilal Thakore's escaping the British by disguising himself as a Rabari in 1942, Jawaharlal Nehru and Sardar Patel's hurried meeting with women leaders at Bhadrakali compound in 1937 and many nights of the curfews in the city." Mahatma Gandhi's departure from the city is a near-miss event that Patel redeemed by clicking the horse cart that carried Gandhi's ashes near Dilli Darwaza in 1948. The cart was draped in a cloth that read 'Hey Ram'!
As he shares his work, the uncommon within the common is a theme that comes across. A monkey sitting on a horse, a sadhu on a bed of nails, labourers engaged in different work, women in an unhurried moments of life, labourers on the river bed, spiritual processions and Ahmedabad dominate Patel's frames. With a free hand and a studio on Ashram road,Patel got newspapers to court him for several decades while everyone from the textile mill owners of Ahmedabad to the erstwhile royals of the state sought him to record all their important events through the 50's and 60's.
Anand Patel his son, with whom the lensman resides recounts of an incident back in 1949 where Manohar Sinh Jadeja the erstwhile Maharaja of Rajkot wanted his wedding filmed. With no takers for the royal task at hand, he contacted Patel, who sought for a truck, a table, a route of the procession. He achieved the feat and subsequently a friend in the Maharaja!
Later years saw Patel transfusing his photographs with pace and unmatched detailing that shone through in his work on the 12 Darwazas of Ahmedabad, political leaders, the Sabarmati riverfront, Kashmir, tribals and pastoral life among others. The Kodak Limited Awards for photographic excellence in 1963-64, the Fuji Film Prize in 1979 organised by UNESCO remain among the many notable mentions of his long career. Matrimony also handed him a wife who was a photographer and a film editor in the late Damayanti Patel.
Even while revisiting an era, Patel is apathetic to the digital age and his understanding of press photography is at best; sympathetic. "I like to click people and history is important to me. I got great joy from not knowing which photograph of mine would make it to the papers. I would dwell on the subject, make copious notes of events in those days. Photojournalism today has become easier and streamlined but has left no scope for my kind of photography to flourish," he says.
A reason that Anand says made his father leave the camera in 2000. Meanwhile The Hilton University, USA has plans to host an exhibition of Patel's work on the first women's organisation of Ahmedabad Jyoti Sangh and their role in mobilising women for the freedom movement next January. "My father recorded and preserved his work very well, which is the reason his work has been well-appreciated. Being uninterested in studies I would often help him. So I never had to take photography classes as each day was a lesson in itself," recalls Anand.
Despite many wonder years in photography, Patel's favorite photograph remains that of a man throwing a fishing net into the Chandola lake. "In comparison to a colour photograph that hands you all the information through colour, one uses the mind more to sift through a black and white one. Digital photography today restricts your thought process and hence I have never worked with digital cameras. When I was taking a picture I would know exactly how it would come out." Patel adds. Luckily for Patel and to his delight, his extended family has taken to the digital photography with gusto and all are dabbling in different genres like museum photography, medical documentation and wedding photography!
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