Artisan Camera: Studio Photography from Central India
Christopher Pinney and Suresh Punjabi
Tara Books
English
Hardcover
96 pages
225 × 200 mm
2013
ISBN 9789383145102
Artisan Camera is a testimony to an era of hands-on studio photography, when physical materials combined with the photographer’s artistry to shape the final image. This book features work from Studio Suhag in Nagda, a small town in central India. Suresh Punjabi – the studio’s proprietor and photographer – showcases some of his vintage photographs from the 1970s and 1980s. They evoke a world where the studio portrait was an important memento, capturing not just the ‘real’ subject, but also a persona made over to meet the camera’s eye. A richly argued essay by visual anthropologist Christopher Pinney – author of Camera Indica – places Punjabi’s work in the context of a visual history.
(source: https://www.thelibraryproject.ie/collections/tsundoku-art-book-fair-2023/products/artisan-camera-christopher-pinney-suresh-punjabi)
About the Author
Christopher Pinney is Professor of Anthropology and Visual Culture at University College London. His chief interests are in commercial print culture and photography in South Asia and popular Hinduism in central India. He is currently leading the European Research Council funded project “Photodemos/Citizens of Photography”.
christopherpinney.org
(source: https://www.christopherpinney.org/)
About the Artist
Suresh Punjabi (1957– ) was born in Indore, India. He had his first portrait taken at age 11 and was transfixed by both the process and its result. Punjabi had informal photography lessons and bought his first professional camera at age 14. As a teenager he travelled across Indore and other parts of Madhya Pradesh to take images and learn the trade. Since 1975 Punjabi has lived and worked in Nagda, Madhya Pradesh where he opened his own studio, Suhag Studio in the late 1970s. Punjabi is particularly known for his studio portraits from the 1970s and 1980s, and he continues to operate his award-winning studio, focusing on weddings and special occasions. He also develops film and prints his own images. Punjabi continues to take his camera outdoors too – creating a vivid sense of the unique time, place and community of which he is a part.
(source: https://www.visionsofindia.mga.org.au/suresh-punjabi-biography)
About the Publisher
Tara Books is an independent publishing house started in 1994 by Gita Wolf. Over the years, she was joined by other creative friends who have helped Tara grow organically and in many directions.
tarabooks.com
(source: https://tarabooks.com/news/)
