A Homage to Homai Vyarawalla

[canadian]

Source: Kolkata Newsline

A Homage to Homai
The Parzor Foundation will release a chronicle of Homai Vyarawalla’s best-known snapshots
Express Features Service

She might be content to tend to her plants on her terrace garden in her Baroda home these days, but even at 93, Homai Vyarawalla’s contribution to early photojournalism in India will not be forgotten easily. Far ahead of her times, Vyarawalla’s life is a remarkable story of a woman’s intimate engagement with the important historical events unfolding around her.

At the end of this month, the Parzor Foundation, an organisation which documents Parsi and Zoroastrian cultural heritage in India, will release a book titled Camera Chronicles of Homai Vyarawalla, written by Sabeena Gadihoke. Better still, Vyarawalla herself will be present for the release, so this is one city engagement you won’t want to miss.

The photo-laden tome will carry a whole range of visuals from her earliest pictures of a nation in its infancy, published under her husband Maneckshaw’s name, to candid portraits of Delhi’s political brass, including Nehru, Dr Radhakrishnan, Maulana Azad and Indira Gandhi.

Vyarawalla began her career in Mumbai during the Second World War. She took up a full-time assignment for The Illustrated Weekly of India where she shot pictures of a nation readying itself for war-time emergencies. Shortly afterward, she moved to Delhi to work for the British Information Services, documenting important political events unfolding at the time of India’s independence.

Vyarawalla herself cut a quaint picture. The only woman in this niche occupation in the early 40s, she would ride around on a bicycle, lugging her heavy equipment herself, keeping a watchful eye for an unusual frame.

Her excellent work and survival in the field of photojournalism have set a benchmark for other women looking to gain a toe-hold in this male-dominated profession.