In adolescence I found I could replicate the real world in my camera to create my own world. With this discovery I fell in love with photography a life long enigma that I have still to outgrow. As I grew up in Kolkata with an affection for its chaotic beauty, I also experienced the love of diversity of India. This unique experience and memory of this fascination is within me and my fondness of this place- this is my place.  I chose to photograph here. An autodidact I read whatever I could on photography and published books were rare. I photographed all the time and won several awards and recognition including the Kodak Award for excellence in photography as well as national awards organised by the Government of India. But I felt a vacuum in my work and only when I saw the print exhibitions of Cartier Bresson, Lee Friedlander , Raghubir Singh and several others that I found a new direction. In a way it was a point of departure. I concentrated in black and white, became sensitive about the light and the way these masters used the wide angle lens and framing of the subject. My work went through a sea change as I approached subjects on the street and moved away from pretty images.

All Photographs shown here are copyright of Sumit Basu and cannot be reproduced without permission

Downtown

Kolkata and Other Happenings

Other Happenings