Shutterbug art

Think contemporary art, and you can count over a dozen names on your finger tips. Think photography, that too, in the tradition of fine arts and not documentary pictures, and you'll be hard put to draw up a similar list.

Manoj Kumar Jain, who has worked as art director with advertising agencies such as Mudra and Contract, knows the struggles of making a living as a fine arts photographer.

Trained in fine arts at the Delhi College of Art, Jain switched careers about two years ago. He wanted to be "free" from client briefs to pursue his passion independently: play with still life compositions with an artist's sensibility and give spark to ordinary life and objects by shooting from unusual angles.

"If you can take a picture for an ad as art which is a commercial work, why isn't it possible to do art work and sell it commercially," he asks.

But the number of enquiries his show 'Anantanant' curated by Elizabeth Rogers and Balbir Tikari has received, indicates that there may be a growing interest in the medium.

While vintage photographs from India (read archival pictures of the maharajas) still command a fat price in the international art market, contemporary works have not been able to make a dent.

But increasingly, Indian corporates and individual collectors are responding to pictures that combine abstract compositions with conceptual themes.

Last year, Jain managed to sell a body of work to Tata Chemicals and Max Healthcare as well as to seasoned collectors.

The response to his first exhibit at Mumbai's NCPA was positive: "I managed to sell 30 per cent of my work," says Jain who has committed himself to making limited edition of seven prints of each negative.

Besides, Jain makes ends meet by doing odd freelance assignments, such as book jacket for publishing houses and NGOs like Penguin and Youthreach.

Says Devika Daulat-Singh of Photo Inc, a photograph agency, "There is an awareness of photography as medium of art today. More shows are being held and business houses are showing an interest in this medium. Even hotels like the Apeejay's in Bangalore and Trident display a large collection of photographs."

Though streams like advertising and fashion photography have carved a niche for itself, Jain insists on keeping purity of form.

"There are no touch-up jobs, no multiple exposures and no cheating in my work. Small things in life have more to offer by way of emotion and it's that texture that I try to capture in my lenses," he says.

Jain admits that it isn't easy to get sponsors. "If it's cricket or a youth show, sponsors will line up. But not for art, which is why it's important for photographers to come into their own and let people see that such a body of work exists," says Jain. The show is on at Delhi's Academy of Fine Arts & Literature till March 3.