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In black and white

SANGEETHA DEVI. K

Manobina Roy, one of the earliest women photographers of India, was a trendsetter of her time.

PHOTOS: MANOBINA ROY

POETRY IN MOTION: Jawaharlal Nehru.

This day, five years ago, Manobina Roy breathed her last. She was 81. The world remembers her as the wife of legendary film-maker Bimal Roy. Those who've known her at close quarters know that she was one of the finest photographers of her time. What set her apart is not just that she was one of the earliest women photographers, but also that she made use of the minimal resources available to her and shot wonderful pictures despite not being a professional photographer.

Negatives and positives

Manobina Roy and her twin sister Debalina Mazumdar learnt photography from their father, who was a member of the Royal Photographic Society of Britain. Manobina pens down in her (unpublished) memoirs: "He (father) had many talents which he wanted to pass on to his daughters, one of them was photography." Manobina's father said: "You see there's this film - and you expose it, develop it and then it becomes the negative. After you process it, it turns positive." Manobina writes: "The moment I heard this I cried out in horror, `I don't want to learn babuji. I cannot stand negatives and positives. I cannot do algebra. Babuji laughed and said photography has nothing to do with algebra'." The sisters were given a small Brownie camera. They also had a makeshift dark room to develop films and process them.

A family photograph from Manobina's collection

The Home and Beyond: Domestic and Amateur Photography by Women in India. Bimal Roy was an up and coming film-maker and an established photographer in Calcutta when Manobina married him.

As Bimal Roy was establishing himself as a film-maker, Manobina anchored the home. Nevertheless, the passion for photographs continued and she seldom travelled without her camera. Her photographs range from portraits to landscapes to events. People fascinated her the most. She enjoyed taking portraits - be it of personalities like Rabindranath Tagore, Vijayalakshmi Pandit, Jawaharlal Nehru or of facets of tribal life. Pandit Nehru appreciated her work stating that it was one of his best portraits. Sabeena writes that Manobina felt photographs are an important means of telling stories about everyday life and family histories. Manobina recounted in an interview in July 1988: "I like taking family photographs because I see that nobody bothers with them now. I recently took a photograph of Girish Karnad's family. It was the first time that the family got together for a picture. They were delighted."

A snapshot of London.

Manobina's works were primarily in black and white and she refrained from letting technological advancements becoming a clutch. She writes in her memoirs: "I now cannot do without an exposure metre. The more we depend on machines, our own power of deduction, analysis and decision making become non-existent or weak."

Her photographs, reminiscent of international films in the 50s and 60s, speak volumes of the life and times back then. Photographs taken during her travel in London and Egypt captures myriad hues of the places and the people. So do the pictures of Doga tribe in Ooty. Both Manobina and Debalina didn't let their limited access to equipment and mobility, as was the case with most women then, hamper their hobby. Sabeena writes: "They were members of the U.P Photographic Association and won prizes when their photographs travelled to competitions. Problems of mobility were solved by the "postal portfolio," which was like a travelling exhibition." A book of Manobina Roy's photographs is to be published in the near future, reveals Manobina's daughter Aparajita Sinha who lives in Hyderabad.

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