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Title:
Volume 14 - Issue 1
Date:
1960
Table of contents:
- p. 2-3: Anand, Mulk Raj, Photography as an Art Form [Editorial] | In this pioneer issue on photography, Marg wishes to bring this new art form into public notice. Towards this purpose, some pictures from the Images of India Exhibition are reproduced here. Opening industries to produce photographic material in India will not only improve our economy, but also make the equipment accessible to photography enthusiasts. The editorial also appeals to the important photographers of India to make the Images of India Exhibition an annual feature, travelling to various regions of the country.
- p. 4: Conversation with Henri Cartier-Bresson | The article reproduces (from Popular Photography, September 1957) the views of the great contemporary photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson on the prejudice and preconceptions associated with photography, the importance of magazines like Magnum as means of expression for photographers, the effectivness of the photographic medium to illustrate a news event, and the technical side of photography and its future.
- p. 5-9: Unwalla, J.N., Indian Photography -- 50 years | The article traces the development of the photographic art since its beginning in 1839 with the separate inventions of Daguerre in Paris and Fox-Talbot in Wiltshire. In India, photography was introduced by some European professional photographers, and was encouraged by art societies in the late 19th century. Shapur Bhedwar and J.S. Tarapore were among the first outstanding pictorial photographers of India. Camera Pictorialists of Bombay (founded 1932) was the most important of the many societies which sprouted, and played an important role in placing India on the map of the pictorial photographic world. A healthy debate has emerged between the pictorial and recordist groups of photographers. The future holds promise for the role of photography in the fields of advertisement, magazines and books, and coverage of news events. Photography is recognized as a creative art and given place in museum displays, and is an art which binds all nations.
- p. 10-14: Kilanjar, Shama, The Amateur and his Camera | The various aspects of amateur photography are: creativity and awareness of life; lighting and composition; technicalities such as exposure time, filters, and the type of camera or lens; the home and family as the central subject; the new medium of colour photography; human instincts (such as curiosity) which lead to the hobby of photography; and photographic clubs, the focal points of amateur photographic activity.
- p. 15-18, 49: Chinwalla, R.J., Contemporary Trends in Indian Photography | The Photographic Movement comprises three main groups of workers: the amateur; the advanced amateur; and the professional photographer. Photography has evolved through various concepts: the old concept of "Art for Art's Sake" has given way to the portraiture of life and realism which, in turn, is a direct outcome of the rebellion against pictorialist concepts. Indian photography, greatly influenced by the United Kingdom, has shown creativity, starting with the L'Avenir ("the future") group in Calcutta. Photography has two aspects -- one catering to the aesthetic leanings of the intelligentsia, and the other being mass communication through purposeful photographic exhibitions. The latter aspect is only now beginning to be properly expressed through well-planned, imaginative, thematic exhibitions. The writer makes a critical appraisal of the organization, and limitations, of the Images of India Exhibition, in the making of which he was vitally involved.
- p. 19-54: Portfolio: Images of India | The pictures are from the Images of India Exhibition, and on the themes of birth, growth, work, rhythm, (dance), festival, woman, love, marriage, family, faith (religion), pain, old age, death, and new beginning. The text outlines the methods of exhibition display, the changing patterns, and the emergence of photography as an art form.
- p. 55-58: Symposium -- What makes a good photograph | Comments by Kasi Nath, Jitendra Arya, A.R. von Leyden, Harbans Chadha, T.Narindra Paul Singh, and J.D. Gondhalekar.