Folding umbrella

Most of the times he didn’t have to explain me anything. "When Manik da heard that Bresson has written a foreword for me, he was delighted, he called up my wife and told her that I have conquered the world. By the mid eighties he started writing letters to Henri Cartier-Bresson. It was in the late sixties that Nemai Ghosh was part of Utpal Dutt’s Little Theatre Group. In one of those evening one of them got a Canon QL17 to his house, claiming to have found it in the cab, which eventually came to Ghosh’s hands. In the past few decades I have worked relentlessly. It was his first shot that helped him pitch his tent in Ray’s camp forever. "He has taught me four essential element of life — discipline, sincerity, honesty and tenacity," he points out. "At that point someone promised me with the cutpiece films (unused reels that were scrapped) which I could use for my new camera," he said." Bresson not gave him a go-ahead but also helped him connect with some of the major curators and editors from Paris, which eventually led Ghosh to exhibit his work for the first time in Paris. Bresson:Though he had the validation from the best in the business, he wasn’t satisfied.. "

Every other day, I find some negative lying in some corner. All he cared was a validation from Cartier-Bresson. "Since I knew most of the cast and crew personally, I got to know that Manik da (Ray) was shooting in Rampurhat (West Bengal). That was his beginning. My relationship with Manik da was very organic.Beginning:On asking how he came into photography, a smile appeared almost instantly and he sat up straight to share every tiny detail of the story. In such an effort, they had organised a month long exhibition of his work on the sets of Ray’s films in Mumbai. "In those days, most of the film cast and crew who were China Wholesale Portable Hammock working with Satyajit Ray would come to my house to play cards in the evening.He was aspiring to be an actor when a sudden twist of fate turned him to photography that he would pursue for the rest of his life, consequently becoming arguably the greatest "photo-biographer" from the country. Although I never learnt how to play cards," he added. "After almost a year of correspondence, he decided to meet and I left for Paris with Sandip (Ray)," he said." Ray called him "poka-makod" which roughly translates to bug, but perhaps he was stressing on "fly on the wall", but for Ghosh, Ray was "like oxygen" who taught him how to work relentlessly. He is 82 now and a spinal cord surgery has taken a toll on him. Later when on someone’s persuasion, I went to meet Manik da, he was shooting in the studio. "We were doing our regular share of Shakespearean adaptations, Othello and Julius Caesar and a lot of progressive Bengali plays," recollects Ghosh sitting in a plush chair next to what looked like a Raza painting inside Delhi Art Gallery in Kala Ghoda. It was a very intimate space that we shared. He was almost like my relative. Ray:Ghosh is indebted to Ray and he makes no bones about it. With Ghosh it is no different. Just a look, and I would understand what he meant," he remembers.

Whenever I felt low, I would go his place and sit in his study. "I work less frequently these days and I always need someone next to me," he lamented. "After they were done, he asked me what I wanted to do with these photographs, I told him very clearly that only if he thinks them of any use, I would take them forward and exhibit them and probably make a photobook. And now I need to save all of it, but not many are ready to help," he laments. He would throw a magazine and I would read, while he kept doing his own work. He recalled how he was offered a glass of wine, which being a teetotaller, he initially refused but eventually accepted while the photographer of "decisive moments" and his wife Martine (Franck) scrutinised his photographs for about half an hour.First Shot:For every photographer there is a certain attachment to his or her first shot. According to Ghosh, "India doesn’t care much about archiving and preserving and currently I am unable to carry this on my own, I have done whatever I could within my limited means and now I want to hand it over to someone," he explains." The scene he was referring to is when Goopy, facing humiliation is exiled from his village and as he enters a forest to find Bagha sleeping next to his drum. He has been a prolific photographer and finds it difficult to keep it organised. Recently, Ashish Anand from DAG Modern came forward and taken a considerable chunk of his work and has been trying to preserve."Ghosh drinks only wine now. He saw that image.