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Photojournalist and 2016 Padma Shri awardee, Sudharak Olwe, led a two-day photography workshop for village girls at the main campus of Agastya International Foundation, near Kuppam, AP. The 8th-standard students came from nearby KGBV School, and spent the first day learning how to observe the world around them and how to choose different vantage points, and recognize the points of view used by photographers in books that the children were shown.
A 30-year veteran in the field, Sudharak uses his camera to expose the most desperate human conditions, always allowing the dignity of his subjects to come through. The workshop, made possible by a financial gift from PhotoSouthAsia (PSA), a project of the MurthyNAYAK Foundation (MNF), showed the girls on day two how to use restraint and be selective and thoughtful in order to tell a story with their photographs. Sudharak was assisted by Dipti Desai. As a female photographer who brought her one-year-old son to the workshop, she was a living example that one neither needs to be a man nor choose career over family to achieve success as a photographer in India.
It was a wonderful experience for the PSA team and Agastya’s teachers to spend the days of the workshop with Sudharak – to see him work with the youngsters, and to learn more about his own projects and his goals for Photography Promotion Trust (PPT). He began the NGO in 2005 to inspire young people to record and share social issues through photography. PhotoSouthAsia also agreed to finance a trip where Sudharak and his team are traveling in a mobile photo studio, locating aspiring photographers, and working with them to spread awareness of issues in their communities.
Having had this opportunity to engage with Sudharak, we at PSA have found him to be not only a gifted photographer, but a humanitarian who is committed to shining a light on those whose plight needs society’s attention. He does not seek the limelight for himself. Recognized for his value to India as Padma Shri, awareness of him and his projects should spread far and wide.
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20 November
