Remembering Navroze Contractor with Photography Strictly Prohibited

Pandit Bhimsen Joshi, Ahmedabad (1972) photographed by Navroze Contractor

Navroze Contractor was a world renown photographer and cinematographer from Ahmedabad who had made Bengaluru his residence. A sequence of occasions titled Images Strictly Prohibited, encapsulating the genius of his inventive talents, marks the primary 12 months anniversary of his loss of life in addition to his birthday. He would have turned 80 on July 7, this 12 months.

Curated by Sanjiv Shah, Anuj Ambalal and Himanshu Panchal, the exhibition will showcase images Navroze took over a interval of 60 years, a lot of which haven’t been seen beforehand.

“We had travelled lots collectively taking footage whereas engaged on varied initiatives. A few years in the past, I talked to him a few retrospective of his work and he laughed it off saying retrospectives had been “an finish of profession” exercise. I countered that saying we’d title it a mid-career retrospective,” remembers Anuj Ambalal.

Nonetheless, Navroze was “fairly eager on doing a e-book on his work,” Anuj says, including that on listening to of his demise, “One of many first issues that got here to my thoughts was to do that retrospective.”

Navroze Contractor
| Picture Credit score:
Mallikarjun Katakol

“Sanjiv was a pricey good friend of Navroze’s they usually loved an extended affiliation on each private {and professional} ranges. So he knew lots in regards to the images that we started searching by means of for this present.”

Between the three of them, they considered greater than 20,000 photographs over a interval of about six to 9 months, to organise the exhibition and the publication. The result’s Images Strictly Prohibited.

“If we had been to summarise this curation, I might say there got here a degree once we realised that subconsciously, intuitively, the three of us had been structuring it in such a manner that it was extra about Navroze than his work.”

“Whenever you take a look at their works, you are likely to get an thought of what sort of individual the artist may very well be. In a way, Images Strictly Prohibited is a portrait of Navroze,” says Anuj.

“Usually, there’s a catalogue as a part of photograph exhibitions. Nonetheless, our thought was completely different, that’s the reason I name it a e-book. It’s an try to carry out the individual that Navroze was reasonably than simply his images. It was primarily how he seemed on the world as he was not a standard photographer,” says Sanjiv Shah.

Images Strictly Prohibited
| Picture Credit score:
NAVAJIVAN TRUST

In keeping with Sanjiv, Navroze by no means actually adopted a theme when participating in his craft, except for his work on jazz musicians which is on show on the Smithsonian in Washington DC. “He at all times carried a digicam; it was uncommon to see him with out one. But, I don’t suppose he was eager on displaying his work to folks — it was principally his eye to the world — and he shot no matter he regarded as related,” he says.

Sanjiv provides that the e-book, additionally titled Images Strictly Prohibited is a compilation of Navroze’s works and two interviews — one on the capturing of his movie Duvidha, and the opposite on his jazz photos. “We have now additionally included a few of his writings, which give an thought of why he was doing what he did. It’s our modest try to present viewers an perception into Navroze as an individual.”

The exhibition will journey throughout India with an extended halt in Ahmedabad in October. For updates observe ambalalanuj on Instagram.

Images Strictly Prohibited might be in Bengaluru from July 5 to 7 and can embody talks and screenings of his movies Duvidha and Jharu Katha. The e-book Images Strictly Prohibited might be on show for pre-order. For occasion particulars go surfing to bangaloreinternationalcentre.org

Images Strictly Prohibited retrospective on Navroze Contractor Particular Association
| Picture Credit score:
NAVAJIVAN TRUST