Rajendralal Mitra and his Photography

Atanu Basu

Rajendralal Mitra can betruly called the Father of Photography in Bengal. In the year 1856, on January 2, the Bengal Photographic Society was founded. It is assumed that any serious pursuit of photography started from that day onwards.

Later on, this day was named as Bengal Photographic Day. Charu Guha Memorial Gallery at the second floor of the famous Coffee House at College Street, Kolkata, hosted a solo photographic exhibition of Late Rajendralal Mitra, the pioneer in photography in Bengal. Incidentally, the founder and the first President of the Photographic Society was none other than Late Rajendralal Mitra. Charu Guha was also a pioneer in the arena of photography in Bengal, in the last century. His son, late Shyma lGuha later founded a gallery in memory of his father.

This photographic exhibition displayed printed copies, seven in number, photographed by late Mitra showing seven temples of Odisha. The photographs showed the Raja Rani temple (9th century AD), Pawa-neswar temple, Multeswar Temple, (both of them belong to 10th century AD), Lingaraj Temple, Bhasharewara Temple ( both of them belong to 11th century AD), Bhaskaracharya Temple and Brahmeswara Temple (23th century AD).

Late Shri Mitra faithfully followed the traditional maxim as regards the angle and the detailing in capturing the brilliant art works of the temples.

This exhibition had other attractions as well. The exhibition also included the photograph of VinduSagar. It had showcased the equipments used by C Guha, like camera and associated items, such as Analogue camera, view camera etc. In the exhibition, photographer Mr JayantaSau was present to provide a commentary about the equipments and photographs as well.

The exhibition also presented to its viewers many rare photographs, photographic materials, album along with modern-day photographs. Mr Asis Lahiri prepared a hand-out for this occasion. It is interesting to note that when Rajendralal was the treasurer of this society, he was entangled with a dispute with the British. All the Bengali office bearers and members of the Photographic Society tendered their resignation en masse.

Those were the days when a solution was used to coat photographic films. Mitra had improved this process substantially by injecting new elements. Later, the prestigious Asiatic Society published a monograph on photography authored by Shri Rajendralal Mitra. Its title was ‘Antiquities of Odisha’. A few photographs taken from this book were presented in this exhibition.

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Vol 57, No. 21, Nov 17 - 23, 2024