Board_Advisors_etc 3..5

Subsequently, Janah spent more of his time
photographing India’s monuments and archaeolo-
gical remains, its dance forms, and its natural
beauty. His photographs are a record of India’s
evolution from political subjugation to independ-
ence, from famine to economic recovery and indus-
trialization, from tradition to modernity. Poised
between images of the past and present, of the Taj
Mahal and Bombay’s Victoria Terminus railway
station, the temples and sculpture of Khajuraho
and Orissa and the modern office blocks of Delhi,
Janah’s photographs present a priceless visual con-
tinuum of India’s past and present.
Janah did much of his early photography using a
Rolleiflex that had to be held at waist level in order
to view the image projected on the ground-glass
screen on top of the camera. This positioning may
have enhanced the dramatic effect of his compo-
sition. He mostly took his photographs in natural
light, often under difficult physical conditions.
With age, his vision has declined. Although he con-
tinued, until very recently to be active in his dark-
room, he now spends much of his time working on
writing his reminiscences to accompany a retrospec-
tive publication of his photographs. Janah, now 86,
lived with his wife Sobha in London from 1980 to
2003, and now resides in Berkeley, California.
Janah was awarded the Padma Shri in 1972 by
the Government of India in recognition of his out-
standing achievement in his field.
Janah’s works have been exhibited extensively in
India and abroad, including Calcutta, Delhi, Mum-
bai, Havana, Berlin, London, Prague, Bucharest,
Sofia, New York, Philadelphia, and San Francisco.
Janah published three books:Tribals of India(2nd
ed; OUP, 2003),Dances of the Golden Hall with
Ashoke Chatterjee (Indian Council of Cultural Rela-
tions, 1979), andThe Second Creature(Signet Press,
1948). His photographs have illustrated several
others, including most of the illustrations in books
such as Mahatma Gandhi by Jawaharlal Nehru,
India Brandtby Arthur Lundkvist,Kama Kalaby
Mulk Raj Anand, andIndian Temple Sculptureby A.
Goswami. The BBC and ITV in the United King-
dom and Doordarshan in India have produced short
documentaries on the life and works of Sunil Janah.

MonolinaBhattacharyya

Seealso: Bourke-White, Margaret; Portraiture;
Social Representation; Visual Anthropology

Biography

Born in Assam, India in 1918. Photographer and journalist
for the Communist Party of India, 1943–1947, working as

the photo editor of the CPI paper People’s War/People’s

Age, 1943–1946. Recorded (a) the Bengal-Orissa famine of

1943–1944; (b) the South India famine of 1945 (with

Margaret Bourke White); (c) India’s peasant, labor and

independence movements; and (d) India’s partition. Free-

lance photojournalist, Calcutta, 1947–1967, and in Delhi,

1967–1979. Work included assignments from the Govern-

ment of India and associated agencies, such as the Damo-

dar Valley Corporation and the India Tourism

Development Corporation, India’s agricultural, mining

and metal industries, and development projects. Contin-

ued photographing and recording: India’s urban, rural

and tribal life; political and cultural luminaries; classical

dance; temple architecture and sculpture. Worked for the

United Nations organization in Burma, Malaya and Thai-

land in 1957, and in Geneva and Paris in 1958–1959. Head

of the Department of Photography at the School of Print-

ing Technology, Calcutta, from 1958 to 1965. In 1972,

awarded the Padma Shri by the Govt. of India, for out-

standing achievement in his field. In 1980, moved to Lon-

don. Continued writing and darkroom printing work on

exhibitions and books. Also continued taking photo-

graphs in the United Kingdom, Europe, and North Amer-

ica into this century, until rendered unable by increasing

loss of vision.

Individual Exhibitions

1965 Calcutta, 1952 and 1953, and New Delhi

1972 Berlin, Rostok and London

1975–76 Prague, Bucharest and Sofia

1984 London at the South Bank and at the Barbican; and

Oxford, at the Oxford Museum of Modern Art (along

with the paintings of the poet Rabindranath Tagore, on

the 125th anniversary of the poet’s birth)

1985 New York Overseas Press Club

1987 Oxford, Wolverhampton and several other cities in the

Midlands, United Kingdom

1991–92 New Delhi, Calcutta and Bombay, (Retrospectives)

1992 Havana Bienelle at Havana, Cuba

1994 Merida, Mexico

1996 New Delhi—by the Indira Gandhi National Centre for

the Arts (IGNCA).

1997 Preston at the Harris Gallery, and London at the

Nehru Centre

1998 Gallery At 678, New York

2000 Kalart Gallery, San Francisco

Group Exhibitions

1982 Festival of India, at The Photographers Gallery, Lon-

don

1990 Fotofest 1990, Houston, Texas

1997–98India—a Celebration of Independence, an exhibi-

tion organized by the Philadelphia Museum of Art and

Aperture Foundation at Philadelphia, London, Milan,

Virginia, New Delhi, Mumbai (Bombay) and Chennai

(Madras)

Further Reading

Sunil Janah’s Homepage:http://members.aol.com/sjanah.

Goldberg, Vicki.Looking at India’s Upheaval from the

Inside (and the Side). New York.

JANAH, SUNIL