The transformation of a
photograph into an iconic image often takes place in retrospect. A photograph
derives meaning as much from what is absent or left out as from what is present
or captured within the frame. Choosing the ‘right’ moment in the continuum of
time is perhaps what ultimately determines the fate of a photograph, as an
iconic image that outlives its producers or one that is easily forgotten with
time. This couldn’t be truer for documentary photography and photo journalism.
In both cases, image taking depends entirely on the chosen moment, a choice
exercised by the photographer. A photographer who exercised this choice par
excellence was Sunil Janah.
Janah rose to prominence with his
hard-hitting coverage of the 1943 Bengal famine. His images of the aftermath of
a catastrophe that claimed millions in Bengal shocked the nation to its core.
Born in Assam in 1918, Janah belonged to a middle class Kolkata (then Calcutta)
family with familial ties to the Medinipur district of West Bengal. During his
student days at the Presidency College, Calcutta, Janah dabbled in amateur
photography and had every intention of becoming a journalist till he met P.C
Joshi, the general secretary of the Communist Party of India (CPI). A member of
the CPI’s student wing, Janah was already involved in left-wing politics when
he was asked by P.C Joshi to document the Bengal famine. The politically
charged atmosphere of the nation coupled with his personal left-leanings led to
Janah’s quitting academics and following Joshi who intended to do reportage on
the famine. It was on this journey that Janah came in contact with the artist
Chittaprosad Bahattacharya who’s sketches of the hunger struck land were
published alongside Janah’s photographs in the Indian Communist Party’s paper,
People’s War and its sister concerns worldwide. Emaciated, skeleton-like family
portraits, a dog chewing on a human corpse and skeletons scattered over the
wasteland are some poignant images taken by Janah that have branded the famine
as the worst man-made calamity in our collective memory.
Although his work was recognized
internationally for its brand of uncompromised narration, it was not without
personal guilt for Janah. In an interview with Frontline’s V.K Ramachandran,
Janah expressed his distress at not being able to help the victims of the
famine actively. Admitting it to be a harrowing experience, Janah also felt
that he “had to take photographs”. It was perhaps this belief and his steel
determination that kept Janah going, leading to the creation of an exhaustive
recording of the disaster. Although Janah viewed himself as an intruder, his
photographs never betrayed a sense of invasion of his subject’s privacy. More
often than not, the genre of photojournalism does not afford the photographer
the convenience of time to compose shots that are ethically as well as
aesthetically balanced. In the case of Janah’s images, be it of riot victims,
national leaders, famous dancers or tribal women, Janah always did justice to
the individual’s subjectivity as well as to the aesthetics of the image.
After his documentation of the
Bengal famine, Janah became a permanent member of the Communist Party of India
(CPI) and moved to their headquarters in Bombay. He became the official
photographer of CPI and travelled the length and breadth of the country
documenting the changing socio-political landscape of an evolving nation. In
1945, P.C Joshi teamed Janah with Life magazine’s photographer Margaret
Bourke-White. Together they travelled to the south of India to cover the famine
that has spread there. Janah’s ideals of socialism reflect across his oeuvre.
Even when he was photographing wars, leaders, riots and rallies, Janah
simultaneously documented the struggles of the common man. His images of coal
miners from Bihar, tea-pickers of Darjeeling and farmers protesting in
Telangana are a testimony to his commitment to the CPI’s ethos of being the
common man’s voice. Janah’s acute awareness of the nuances of the medium set
him apart from his contemporaries. Most of his pictures were taken from below
the eye level, imparting an aura of heroism to the subject that was reminiscent
of the socialist realism era art in Russia. Although the point of view was
dictated by the Rolleiflex camera that needed to be held at waist-level, the
precise and tight compositions were dictated by Janah’s own sense of
aesthetics. A masterful control of natural light rendered his subjects with a
sharpness that Janah strived for in his images.
After the removal of P.C Joshi as
the general secretary of CPI in 1948, Janah’s Connections to the party became
strained. He shifted to Kolkata (then Calcutta) where he opened a Photo studio
and continued working as a commercial photographer. An observation of the
images taken during this phase indicates its contrast to the earlier, pre-independence
phase in the context of the subject depicted. Janah concentrated on
photographing architectural edifices and classical Indian forms. Consequently,
he is credited with documenting some pivotal artists like, Ragini Devi, Indrani
Rehman, Shanta Rao and Bade Ghulam Ali Sahab.
Janah’s technical prowess of the
craft and his passion to document India and its people can be observed in the
book, The Tribals of India. For this book, Janah collaborated with
anthropologist Verrier Elwin and together they created a visual history of the
country’s indigenous folks. There is a sense of ease in the images. The subjects
- Mahasu youth, Bhil girls, and topless Kerala women – all appear to be
unselfconscious and utterly oblivious to the camera’s eye. Janah’s portrayal of
his subjects is devoid of romanticism, depicting them going about their daily
chores in their natural habitat. Smiling, laughing and gazing back at the
camera, these men and women break away from the mold of the “exotic”. The
Tribals of India was Janah’s third book. Janah’s first book titled, The second creature was published by
Signet Press, Calcutta in 1948.His second book, Dances of the Golden Hall, co-authored with Ashoke Chatterjee is a
collection of photographs of the Indian classical dancer Shanta Rao and her
interpretation of the traditional Indian dances.
Photographer Ram Rehman organized
a retrospective of Janah’s work in New York in 1998 that featured 600 vintage
prints. Rehman describes Janah as a political activist whose activism was his
photography. Even after a lifetime of taking photographs, with diminishing
eyesight and failing health, Janah’s passion for his craft and his belief in
socialism remained intact. In an interview with Silicon Valley based ‘internet
radio’ producer Kamala Bhatt, Sunil Janah’s son, Arjun has been noted to say
that although his father never went back to the communist party he believed in
the goals and ideals of socialism till his dying day.
By Shabari Choudhury
This article appeared in the 75th Issue of the Magazine Art
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