Mitter Bedi | |
---|---|
Born | |
Died | 11 March 1985 Mumbai, India | (aged 59)
Nationality | Indian |
Occupation(s) | Photographer and teacher |
Known for | Industrial photography in black-and-white photographs and Academy in photography in Mumbai |
Children | Three daughters |
Mitter Bedi (26 January 1926 [1] – 11 March 1985 [2]) was an Indian photographer, specialising in industrial photography, and a teacher. [3] Prior to his interest in the field there was little photographic use in advertising and his images have become classic icons. He was a recipient of several awards and he had his own photographic agency in Bombay (now Mumbai), which became well known in Asia. [2]
Mitter Bedi was born in Lahore, British India, on 26 January 1926. He studied at the D.A.V. School in Lahore from 1930 to 1940. He relocated to Bombay in 1940 [4] and pursued his college education from the Vidyasagar College in Calcutta from 1940 to 1943. He married Sarla Goenka, and they had three daughters, Preeti, Jyoti, and Gayatri. [1]
Bedi started his career by working for a printing press and the publicity department of a commercial firm and then took up a job in the film industry in 1947, the year of the partitioning of India and Pakistan into independent nations. [4] At the start of his career in the early 1950s, his photographic assignments covered small events, mostly related to weddings and birthday celebrations [4] or serving as the third or fourth assistant to a Bollywood film director. [5] He frequented the airport to photograph passengers departing and arriving, which prompted his father-in-law B.N. Goenka, an industrialist, to suggest that Bedi change professions or travel abroad. However Bedi was firm in his resolve to continue in his chosen profession and said: "I am never going to leave the profession but bring it to the heights it deserves". [6] In 1959 his photographic assignments saw a drastic change when he met Arthur D'Arzian, [5] who had specialized in photography of the steel and oil industry, during a social function of the Standard Oil Company in Bombay. Bedi then pursued engagements of Industrial photography, a new field just taking off in the country. [6]
Bedi's assignments covered public sector corporations and private enterprises. [4] From 1960 to 1985, he traversed the industrial regions of India taking pictures. [3] He took more than 2,000 photo shoots during the span of his career and covered projects from industries such as steel and oil, hospitality, mines, sugar, pharmaceuticals and many more. [4] To propagate black-and-white photography as a profession in the country he wrote many articles and also established an academy in Bombay which is still operational under the direction of his family members. [4] His photographs depicted a nation in which the factory and reactor dominated over the Indian people. [7] He also worked as visiting professor in: K.C. College of Journalism, Bombay during 1974–75; National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad in 1976; in Rajednra Prasad Institute of Communication, Bombay in 1978; and in SNDT Women's University, Bombay, 1978. [1] His academy in Bombay was a prominent institution in photography which enrolled national and international students and teachers. [1]
Bedi's images have become classic icons of the industrialization which was carried out in India under Nehru. In spite of the limiting aspects of photographs taken primarily for advertising, [4] Bedi introduced shape, design and geometric planes to create artistic rather than simply functional images. [5] His visual expressions and artistry were used by both the state and industrialists to drive national development. An oeuvre of his black-and-white photographs taken during the period 1960s to 1970s, was held at the Piramal Centre for Photography representing an Art Form in Mumbai. [4]
Bedi died in Bombay on 11 March 1985 due to a cardiac failure. [2]
Bedi's career achievements received acclaim through several awards. Some of the awards he received were: Two Kodak International Awards; nine Advertising Club Awards; and six Commercial Artists Guild (CAG) Awards. In 1984 he was honoured with CAG's "Photographer of the Year" award. [4]
Writing in The Hindu, Ranjit Hoskote observed: [4]
It took the late Mitter Bedi's pioneering efforts to demonstrate that industrial photography had scope for creativity. Unwittingly, perhaps, he has also bequeathed us with a moving account of the bold initial success, and eventual tragic failure, of the Nehruvian idea of modernity
. Bedi's photographer friend Jehangir Gazdar stated in India Today: [6]
It was in fact Bedi who almost single-handedly built up industrial photography in India. There are many others now, but he was the grandfather of them all. He started out from nothing to build a small-scale industry.