Pose for a moment

The face of portrait photography in India is changing and becoming more professional.

For someone who considers "reality to be most extraordinary", well-known photographer Mary Ellen Mark (voted by readers of American Photography as one of the best women photographers) in a recent radio interview mentioned her "constant desire to shape the ordinary into surprising images".

Which is why Ellen's portraitures, in her own words, can be poetic, complex and fascinating at the same time. In a career spanning over three decades, her lens has clicked celebrities all over the world, including the interiors of India where not many would tread.

From portraitures of Mother Teresa tending to patients, to a series of shots on Indian road performers, to fascinating portraitures of girls in a Mumbai brothel, there are also a wide range of celebrity portraits (including Hollywood actors, directors, well-known musicians and politicians, and writers including Arundhati Roy) available for sale on her website www.maryellenmark.com.

Back home, in India, Radhika Shrivastava is opening the doors to her plush photo studio on a Wednesday, otherwise considered a day-off for the employees there. "A family from Lucknow has especially come for a photo shoot and we just couldn't refuse," she says, while taking us on a tour through the Celebrity Kids Portraits Studio, nestled in Said-ul-a-jab, a stone's throw from the Qutab Minar.

The studio, which is barely two months old, is going strong already and, according to Shrivastava, is getting a positive response. "People in India were waiting for this concept. There are times when I shake my head and think how and why has India waited for so long for a well-defined portrait studio." She adds, "Even couples come to us for maternity portraits," she says.

The prices (which vary according to packages) start from Rs 5,500 (gold collection) and can go up to Rs 24,500 (heirloom collection). The most popular package is the platinum collection, which costs Rs 13,500 and includes a set of six portraits in different sizes, finishes and frames, of which two portraits are in canvas finish. In addition, clients are required to pay Rs 1,000 for the basic photo session that usually takes an hour.

If people from all over India are flocking to this studio to get portraitures shot ("one family," she says, "has ordered as many as 40-odd prints to send to their friends and relatives"), well-known photographer Tarun Khiwal is getting invited to different destinations by people who want to get their portraits shot.

Khiwal has just returned from Dubai where he shot portraits of Mohamed Alabbar, one of the more prominent citizens of the UAE with varied business interests in the country. Khiwal shot his portrait for the annual report of his Emmar Group of Companies.

"These are busy individuals but they still give us time and discuss how photographers should project them," says Khiwal. Though he's unwilling to quote any figures, he says well-known photographers ("they are a brand in themselves") can command upto Rs 1 lakh for an assignment.

"The range varies: clients can pay Rs 10,000 for their portraits and Rs 50,000 for a similar portrait shot by a renowned photographer," he says. One of the biggest changes in portrait photography in India, according to him, is that a large number of corporates and MNCs are asking him to visit their offices and click portraits of different teams and individuals holding key positions there.

For Khiwal, it was the love of clicking portraits that led him to becoming a fashion photographer. "Even in fashion photography, I look for portrait shots," he says. He assisted Hardev Singh, a veteran in portrait photography, who is now considered the best photographer in the hospitality industry. "It is an art form in itself," says Singh.

Well-known photographer Atul Kasbekar feels that though portraiture is huge in the US and Britain, in India this genre has had a slow start. "Portraiture is actually like any other serious advertising shoot," he says.

"The prices of shoots vary with every photographer. Besides the shoot fees, clients have to take care of airfare, boarding and lodging," he says. "It's an emerging art form that everyone wants to take seriously," says Shrivastava. Considering that Akbar Padamsee's celebrated portraits of nude women had reportedly fetched Rs 1 lakh each, it's not difficult to understand this statement.

In Delhi's Mahatta Studio (it started in the capital in 1947), owner Pavan Mehta is showing us old portraits of personalities including India's first President, Rajendra Prasad, and politician Krishna Menon. "They used to take prior appointments. We used to have couples all decked up and walking into our studio," says Mehta, pointing to a portrait of a couple that was taken in the '60s.

Mehta agrees that portraiture is taken seriously by corporates. "We send our photographer to offices. Corporates give portrait shots away to individuals as gifting options after board meetings," he says. While prices at Mahatta for portrait shots cost Rs 5,000 and above, for studio shots of portraits, the cost is comparatively less at Rs 3,500 (these are just the shooting charges).

"For professionals like me, portraiture is a passport to peek into someone else's persona," says Khiwal.

For now, portraiture is an experience that a growing number of people in India want to share, a memory they want to capture and an image that will last for more than just a lifetime.