Twenty works by famous photographer, the late Bandi Rajan Babu, from the series Nude in Nature were taken off at the Indian Photography Festival.
When Bandi Ramana, the photographer’s son, visited the State Art Gallery just before the exhibition was launched on Thursday, he found that all of Rajan’s works were taken down.
“The photos were all nudes so the gallery authorities felt that they were obscene,” explains Ramana. “There was an empty section where the photos stood. I was shocked because when I looked around I noticed that works of other photographers were still there,” adds Ramana, who had curated this section for the show along with a team of members.
Ramana, however, decided to go ahead and put back all 20 photos from the series. “I decided to put back the photos. But what happened after the inauguration was even more shocking. When Speaker Madhusudhana Chary walked into the gallery, the authorities literally took him away from the section where the nude photos were displayed. The authorities weren’t comfortable with even taking him to that section of the exhibition... that is an insult to the artiste,” he says.
While the photos are back on display, the fact that the works were considered “obscene” is what surprised Ramana and Aquin Mathews, who is hosting the Indian Photography Festival.
“I’ve travelled all over the world and I’ve seen a lot of work of photographers. And one thing that stayed with me after I saw Rajan’s work was that it was beautiful. The works are so artistic... and for someone who shot them in the early ’80s, when there were no digital cameras and when nude photography was taboo... it is simply amazing. Rajan Babu was among the top photographers from the city... he was a pioneer in his own right, and he deserves to be appreciated,” says Aquin.
S. Madhusudhana Chary, Speaker of Telangana Legislative Assembly and MP Vishweshwar Reddy at the exhibition
He adds, “We need the mindset of people to change. We need people to accept such creations as art. Just because these are nude photos doesn’t mean it’s vulgar... the greatest insult to such an artist is to liken his work to pornography... this is just art.”
However, director of the State Art Gallery, Dr Manohar, says that there was “no controversy” to begin with. “It’s just that some of the images at the exhibition depicted almost nude models and we felt that this may offend a few people as families and school kids are expected to attend the photography festival. The State Art Gallery is a government organisation and we wanted to avoid controversy, so we suggested that a disclaimer be put up, warning people that there is a nude image being displayed. Then it’s up to them if they want to view it or not, I didn’t ask for the image to be removed. The matter has now been sorted out.”
Bandi Rajan Babu was a famous photographer in Hyderabad. His works on a wide variety of subjects had brought him fame. He had shot the current series of nude photos in 1983.
Rajan was also a fellow of the Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain and an Honorary Fellow of the AP State Akademi of Photography.
