Review: Janah, Sunil, Photographing India, Oxford University Press, 2013

One thing that comes through clearly while reading Indian photographer Sunil Janah's autobiography is that he had a great life. He recorded India’s independence and its growth as a new nation state. His circle of friends and acquaintances included some of the country's brightest minds. He traveled widely (especially among many of the non-aligned and socialist nations), and he did all this while supporting himself as a photographer (a job well below the standards of India's aspiring bourgeoisie).

He was by training, and perhaps temperament, an academic, working towards a Master’s degree in English literature at the Presidency College of Calcutta when he was recruited to the Communist Party and became, for lack of any competition, the Party's official photographer. A boyhood pastime turned into several years of passionate practice dedicated to social justice and Indian independence, leading over the course of 40 years to a career and recognition as one of India’s most noted image makers.

Assignment Five: Narrative

Introduction

I don’t know if I could have found a more interesting subject for this assignment.

When I started thinking some months ago about how to spend my 8-week my summer holiday, I knew I wanted to do something to extend my photographic practice.  I began looking around the internet for classes, most of which seemed to be rather expensive and not in the direction I would be travelling, toward my in-laws in Japan.  I found a few organizations offering internships with newspapers and magazines in several developing Asian nations, but it seemed fees were too high for unpaid work experience.  I then came upon Unite For Sight, a US-based NGO supporting eye clinics in several developing countries and offering volunteer opportunities to photography students.  Three of their network hospitals are in India, east of and very close to Dubai.

With a reference from my OCA tutor and other supporting documents, my application to the program was accepted and my plan set in motion:  to do this narrative assignment on some aspect of life at Kalinga Eye Hospital.   Besides meeting my own needs, I wanted to do work that would be useful to the hospital, but communication from India was sparse.  The NGO claimed the hospital staff was busy and would be able to discuss things with me once I arrived.