“My cameras have been a constant companion, whether it was an assignment, a picnic with the family, or a pleasure trip… Even today, when I go to a music or dance concert, I always carry my camera with me, to capture the mood of the performance,” says Pasricha, who is skilled in capturing his subject candid, unguarded moments during their performance.
Shri Avinash Pasricha is an iconic name in the world of photography. His photographic oeuvre constitutes a historic personal archive of images of India’s most iconic performing artistes. He has passionately documented, for more than 50 years, the cultural efflorescence of New Delhi.
His lifelong tryst with photography began at the Vishnu Digamber Jayanti at Sapru House in New Delhi in 1966, during the early days of Kodak Tri-X fast films that made it possible, for the first time, to shoot by available light. This opened the door to what was to become Shri Pasricha’s enduring quest: the mood picture – unopposed, unguarded, and unplanned. His photograph of Smt. M.S. Subbulakshmi, caught up in an inward ecstasy was to become one of the defining photographs of his career.
His archive includes rare images of celebrated legends such as Smt. Siddeshwari Devi, Pt. Bhimsen Joshi, Smt. Kishori Amonkar, Pt. Vinayak Rao Patwardhan, Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra, Smt. Begum Akhtar, and Pt. Birju Maharaj, among many others. Shri Pasricha has used his collection of beautiful images of Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra photographed over many years, and distilled them into an exquisite Audio Visual tribute to the renowned guru.
Shri Pasricha has received numerous awards including the Delhi State Sahitya Kala Parishad Award 1987, the Life Time Achievement Award by Ananya, the Kaladharmi Begum Akhtar Award 2013 and the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award 2016.
The jury of Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra Award unanimously acknowledges his immense contribution to the field of Photography, and is pleased to confer upon him the NALCO Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra Award for the year 2019.
Avinash was born to a photographer father in Shimla on August 2, 1936. His father worked for a company during the British Days, so the family moved from Delhi to Shimla every summer. It was in 1938, his father opened his own shop ‘Delhi Photo Company’ at Janpath in Delhi and Avinash literally grew up in the studio. He got a chance to notice photography right from his childhood. Then they had a branch in Mussoorie. They went to the hill station every summer. He did most of his education at Vincent Hill School in Mussoorie. He then attended St Stephen’s College in Delhi and completed his Bachelor’s degree.
Talking about his initial idea of photography he says, “I cut a hole in the paper box, made a pinhole and pasted a tissue paper at the back and kept it around so you can see an image upside down. That was my first idea of photography, that a pinhole can form an image.”
To read the full article kindly subscribe to the Magazine…
