“Don’t go by the age. Go by the age of my photographs. They will remain with me. They will remain for years,” were the words of India’s first woman photojournalist Homai Vyarawalla who left her legacy of iconic photographs behind.
Homai Vyarawalla captured every iconic moment in India, right from getting independence from British Raj to post-independence era. Such was her contribution, Google paid tribute to her on Saturday with a Doodle.
Birth- Navsari, Gujarat
Year- Born on December 13, 1913
Education- Diploma in Arts from J J School of Arts in Mumbai
She captured some of the important moments which took place in Indian history which included the moment when the first flag was hoisted at the Red Fort on August 15, 1947. The departure of Lord Viceroy, Lord Mountbatten and the funerals of Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, and Lal Bahadur Shashtri. She also photographed Queen Elizabeth's and former United States president, Dwight Eisenhower's visits to India.
She moved to Mumbai to pursue a diploma at St Xavier’s College and completed her further studies at JJ School of Arts. She also worked with British Information Services.
It was Maneckshaw Vyarawalla, a photographer with Times of India who taught her photography. In 1941, she married Maneckshaw and the couple lived in Delhi.
In 1969, her husband passed away and a year late she quit photography and moved to Vadodara in Gujarat. Their only child Farouq died of cancer in 1982.
Vyarawalla always believed that a key to a good photograph is timing, composition, and angle. She told The Hindu during an interview,
There are 15 people taking a photograph at the same time; each has his own style. But there's only one who gets the right moment and the right angle.”
In 2010, she was conferred with the Lifetime Achievement Award by the I&B Ministry and in 2011, she was awarded the Padma Vibhushan, the second highest civilian award in India.
On January 15, 2012, she passed away at the age of 98 in Vadodara, Gujarat.
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