On a warm Sunday afternoon, visitors to Hyderabad’s State Art Gallery are greeted ‘Bonjour! Comment Allez-Vous? (French for ‘Good morning! How are you?’). The French connection leads to ‘Dalwadi: An Indian lens on France’ a photo exhibition (at the Gallery till June 6) by professor Parmanand Dalwadi. This postcard from the Paris of the ‘70s comes to town as part of Bonjour India 2022 celebrating Indo-French relations. Organised by Alliance Francaise of Hyderabad in collaboration with the India Photo Festival, the travelling exhibition rings in nostalgia with 50 black-and-white photographs.
‘Paris and its Terraces’ showcases a relaxed group of people in different moods. A candid frame of Indian and Parisian women filled with joie de vivre on July 14 Bastille Day celebrations on a street, two lovebirds under an umbrella in front of the Parisian twin towers, a woman’s hand casually wrapped around the man’s waist shows how a fleeting moment is made memorable through images.
With a twinkle in his eye, 82-year-old Dalwadi takes a step back to recall how he delved into the heart of Paris to map its human element and tell a thousand stories. That art’s loss is photography’s gain holds true for Dalwadi, who graduated in Fine Arts from The Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda in ‘63. The transition to photography happened in the same year when he joined the then nascent National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad.
His career in photography took a new turn when he assisted legendary French photographer (late) Henri Cartier-Bresson when he toured India in 1965 (WHICH YEAR?); Cartier-Bresson took him to Paris in ‘70. ’ (AGAIN WHICH YEAR?). “Bresson was known for his ‘decisive moment’ in photography and I too had that inclination for spontaneous capture.” says Dalwadi who also worked with the acclaimed Magnum Photos in Paris.
Depicting human relations has been the high point of his pictures. This, he says has been possible by discovering Paris by road during his nine-month sojourn. He explored London, Italy and Frankfurt in a similar way. “I never preferred to travel in a vehicle. Walking is the best possible way to encounter different situations and know a city and its people,” he elaborates.
On taking pictures in black and white, he says. “The new generation of photographers don’t take advantage of colour, hence feel black-and-white is good. It was a different case for me as the film reel was expensive and I could only afford to buy only Tri-X. I would remain hungry for a couple of days so that I could buy the reel,” says Dalwadi, who owns a Nikon D3 now. Thanks to a Ford Foundation scholarship, he could travel all over Europe and save money for reels and shoot pictures.
In Paris, he also met his wife Dr Radium Bhattacharya, who passed away in 2009. “We were together for 32 years; She was an oncologist but passed away due to cancer,” he shares.
He teaches photography at the Architecture School of Design in Ahmedabad and advises budding photographers to learn how and what to see. “The former can be through the camera but the latter can be done only by one’s mind. Photography is a visual art. I tell my students to read a lot, see pictures of different photographers, understand its effects and response to that photograph. ”
While he has not faced a challenge while taking photographs, he narrates a story of a spontaneous capture of two people kissing in Paris. “I kept walking after clicking the picture. A few students with me said, “ Arre dekho, ab woh log aake maarenge (Watch, they will come and hit you). I said, “ Par dekhaga, toh marega (Only if he sees, will he hit). Photography is about a capture.”
