Besides O.P. Sharma, at United Art Fair several photography practitioners rediscovered Chitrangada Sharma, his wife and another great photographer.
One of the several brilliant students produced by the veteran, Chitrangada too hasn’t been showing her work in India for some time. “In fact, I haven’t done any new work recently because you don’t find good paper to make prints,” says Chitrangada, daughter of celebrated painters Kanwal and Devyani Krishna.
“It took her some persuading to get to agree to showcase her work at the fair,” says Ram about the reclusive photographer, adding that she has a very graphic style. “She is more playful and experimental. She also worked with multiple exposures and high-contrast litho films, influences which may have come from her printmaker mother Devyani,” he adds.
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Chitraganda took up photography while she was studying in Modern School and that’s where she came in contact with O.P. Sharma. “I had to learn everything from scratch. He was the one who was good at darkroom work so I learnt everything from him. I think what made him such a good teacher was that he always tried to give his students what he couldn’t get and had to struggle with,” says Chitranganda, who, since her first solo show in 1968, has had only nine more shows. Chitrangada is Chairperson of the Kanwal and Devayani Krishna Foundation for promotion of Art & Photography. At present, she is the Vice President, India International Photographic Council.