Back then it used to be an honour to be photographed by Jitendra Arya. He was a photographer par excellence with a circle of friends who were the cream of society. Raj Kapoor and Nargis would visit his studio during their holiday in London, so it was with Pandit Ravi Shankar. Jitendra also had access toPandit Jawaharlal Nehru’s time with his little grandsons – Sanjay and Rajiv Gandhi, in Pahalgam.
“Light Works”, a long overdue retrospective of Jitendra Arya, curated by photo-historian and filmmaker Sabeena Gadihoke, is on display at the National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA), Bangalore. The works on view at the gallery, according to his son, Kavi Arya, is only the tip of the iceberg. “Sabeena and I sifted through 7000 negatives over three years and finalised around 400 images. They still are in several boxes that are lying unopened,” says Kavi, hinting at Jitendra’s expansive oeuvre.
The exhibition covers three decades of Jitendra’s work - from 1952 onwards. He was in England till mid-70s, by which time he was in India and working as the chief photo editor of a national daily. Arya grew up in Nairobi and developed an interest in photography at the age of 10. Jitendra apprenticed under Hungarian-British photojournalist Michael Peto and considered him, his guru. A portrait of Peto is also included in the show.
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Guru Dutt was keen to cast Arya’s wife Chhaya as the lead character of ‘Chhoti Bahu’ in “Sahib, Bibi Aur Ghulam” which is what led the Aryas to move to India. While the film role eventually went to Meena Kumari, Arya embarked on a new journey coming back to his roots in India.
In post-Nehruvian era in India, Arya concentrated on commercial photography, though in Kenya, he had chronicled several seminal political events. Calling his work as a representation of an unwritten history of Indian photo history, Gadihoke says, “While press photographers like Homai Vyarawalla, Sunil Janah or Kulwant Roy have been written about, the craft and iconicity of commercial photography has been invisible so far. And yet, if one were to look at magazine photography in these decades (beginning with the 1950s), then it is the amazing work of photographers like JA (Jitendra Arya) that would stand out. We remember these glamorous and insightful portraits but perhaps not the person who took them. This exhibition is a tribute to his skill and virtuosity as a master of the staged as well as the candid portrait. As we are discovering, Arya’s work extended far beyond portraiture.”
A collage of Femina and Filmfare magazine covers at the entrance and other images of top models of that time - Zeenat Aman, Shobha Rajadhyaksha (now De), Persis Khambatta etc. gives you a glimpse of his engagement with the world of fashion. “He was one of the early pioneers of fashion photography and practiced landscape photography too. In the Bangalore show I have added some of his early work in Kenya and the streets of London. He also took production stills on the sets of several films and these pictures would be of interest to film scholars today.” Gadihoke is referring to the film shoots of the 1953 classic “Mogambo” featuring Clark Gable, Ava Gardner and Grace Kelly; “Bhowani Junction” (1956), Manzil (1960) featuring Dev Anand, Nutan and Achala Sachdev, which are part of the show.
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He possessed a shy demeanour, but someone who could be befriended easily. The camaraderie with his ‘subjects’ is visible in the portraits he made. Be it a business tycoon, political figure, a top-notch dancer, sought-after writer or a royal, his subjects in black and white frames appear accessible and real. The portrait of JRD Tata shot by Arya in Bombay House in which he sits at his desk with his chin resting on his crossed palms and the world map hanging behind went on to become an iconic image. “He could put people at ease which is why people struck lasting friendships with him.
“M.F. Husain wanted the portrait shot by my father and in return my father wanted the painting so they exchanged one painting for a photograph. You can see Husain’s photo and the painting both in the show. My father was a Bohemian,” says Kavi, an associate professor at IIT Mumbai.
Besides photographs, the exhibition also showcases letters from significant people from across the world like Khushwant Singh, Lady Edwina Mountbatten, Satyajit Ray, actress Nutan and translights of the portraits of Mala Sinha, Smita Patil, Nirupa Roy, Waheeda Rahman etc.
The way Arya employed light in his images also made it stand out. The show gets its name, Light Works, from this aspect of his image-making. “He was a master of light and was comfortable with both artificial as well as natural light. In later years he preferred the latter and even broke down the walls in his studio-cum-apartment in Colaba, Mumbai to let the light in,” feels Gadihoke.
(“Light Works is on display at NGMA Bengaluru , 49 Palace Road , till August 21. After Bangalore, the exhibition will travel to NGMA Delhi and then London.)
More about Arya
Jitendra Arya was born in Shahdara, Delhi but later his family shifted to Nairobi. He was only 15 when his photograph of Jomo Kenyatta, the Kenyan anti-colonial activist and first President of Kenya was published in The Colonial Times.
In 1948, he shifted to England to pursue photography and ran a studio out of his home in Chiswick. In 1951, he went with his mentor, Hungarian-British photojournalist Michael Peto to shoot the making of Sir Alexander Korda’s documentary on Jawaharlal Nehru. At that time, Nehru was leaving on his first holiday after becoming the Prime Minister and wanted to be left alone. But the team still followed them to Kashmir. Arya’s candid photographs of Nehru playing with his grandchildren were published in the front pages of The Sunday Times which made him a star photographer.
His wife Chhaya runs 71 year-old Chetana Crafts Centre which has a restaurant, bookshop and is one of the earliest art galleries in Mumbai. The art centre continues to be an important landmark fixture in the cultural scene of Mumbai.