OP Sharma Retrospective: Frames pay homage to master of analogue photography

Hum bewafa haragiz na the
par hum vafaa kar naa sake…
It was the year 1978, when actor Dharmendra lip synced this song on screen for the film Shalimar, which is till date remembered as an Indo-US co-production to create history for being the most expensive movie ever made in India at the time. What’s lesser known is the one man involved during the making of this film, whose contribution towards promoting the art of photography in India has been undermined. About 60 years ago, pictorialist photographer OP Sharma had exhibited his first solo show in Delhi, at Triveni Kala Sangam. Today, 150 black and white prints and photograms from Sharma’s collection are displayed at the same venue, and seemingly try to claim their space on the white walls amid the coloured world, at an ongoing exhibition titled OP Sharma & the Fine Art of Photography.

 
Captured in the displayed frames are some actors such as late Shashi Kapoor, Simi Garewal, Zeenat Aman and Dimple Kapadia. “Sharma ji worked on only four films but the composition of his images, and in some cases the skilled printmaking like particularly in the film Siddhartha, involved creating beautiful results that further amplified the aesthetic vision of the film. He would place his camera very close to the film camera, which captured the actors’ emotions during their rehearsals so that the sound of his shutter doesn’t interrupt the shot,” shares curator Sukanya Baskar, a freelancer with the Alkazi Foundation for the Arts. 
Baskar explains how the ace lensman would later experiment with the photographs, which were exalted in the dark room to create multiple effects, and send these for international competitions inspired by the pictorialist movement of the late 19th and early 20th century. “The whole idea was how to replicate something like the medium of painting with photography. So a lot of those impulses are visible within the formalist paintings of landscape and light and shadow and form and geometry. Mr Sharma was a staunch pictorialist, and saw the merit of that movement,” adds Baskar.
 
In the section on portraiture, one masterpiece is a 1965 photograph of Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan. “Mr Sharma created a montage of Bade Ghulam Ali and his musical instrument (swarmandal)… In the frame where the artiste is holding his hand to his forehead, he’s also immersing himself in his music and this picture speaks of Mr Sharma’s own engagement with music,” shares Rahaab Allana, curator-publisher, Alkazi Foundation (which is organising the exhibition in partnership with Art Heritage), revealing how Sharma’s livelihood pursuits bear a strong influence on his choice of subjects. “Sharma ji did some writings as a music critic at one point. He would also listen to classical music through the night while working in the dark room, which leads one to find some kind of sentiment in his character portraits… He would befriend the musicians who would come to perform at Shankarlal Music Festival – held at Modern School where Sharma ji had been a teacher for some time – and would later take them along to click their portraits.”
 
In one of the frames, Sharma captures not just the late actor Ashok Kumar’s smile from cheek to cheek but also leaves less to the imagination by including in his frame, a lit cigarette in the hand. “This was an informal portrait (ie not shot within a studio setting) of Ashok Kumar. It was clicked at a house party on Barakhamba Road, but while creating the print Sharma ji brought it out like this… It’s fascinating to see how he was a true artist, not restricting himself to a single medium,” adds Baskar.
There’s an unending charm to these black and white frames, from the age of the dark room. But in the present times when photography needs just the tap of a finger, this showcase rightly proves how followers of photography have not forgotten the efforts of this modern master (hum bewafa hargiz na the), for it was OP Sharma whose immense contributions led to photography attaining the status of art and August 19 being observed as as World Photography Day.
 
What: OP Sharma & the Fine Art of Photography (1950s-1990s)
Where: Shridharani Gallery, Triveni Kala Sangam, 205 Tansen Marg
When: September 5 to October 3
Timing: 11am to 7pm 
Entry: Free
Nearest Metro Station: Mandi House on the Blue and Violet Lines