Jyotish Chakravarty (1928 - 2007)

Jyotish Chakravarty was a Kolkata based photographer and a photographic-print maker who also owned and worked from the famous Image Photographers. He was born on 1 Januray, 1928. At the age of twenty, he owned a box-camera and spent considerable time with it which also fetched him an award at a local Durga Puja festival competition. The competition was judged by famous Shambhu Shaha. Jyotish-da worked in a tea exporting company called Lyons India Ltd. for fourteen years, but he still managed to nurture his photographic skills. It was also during this period when he had the opportunity of being selected as one of the three Indians in the International Salon organized by PAB (Photographers Association of Bengal) in 1956. The three Indians who were honoured during this event were Satyajit Ray, Deepak Saraswati and Jyotish Chakravarty in order. 

Jyotish Chakravarty had acknowledged the late B.K. Sanyal, popularly known as Mej-da, as his mentor. He was inspired by the composition, lighting and printing techniques of Mej-da. In 1961 the office in which he worked shifted its base from Kolkata and he was left with no alternatives. Jyotish-da was also gripped with nostalgia for his city and family and he decided to stay back in Kolkata. He started his own studio (Image Photographers) in the city and decided to be a full time photographer. The name of the studio was given by a friend Shailen Manna and Jyotish-da was initially trained by Sanjit Dhar Ray. It was Jagannath Ray Choudhary who was a member of PAB, helped him to set up the studio. For the next two decades IMAGE at 10/C Ramesh Mitra Road became the production center of best quality black and white photographs which was frequented by the best photographers and the aspiring ones of that time. Jyotish-da was well known for using the best quality chemicals and processing techniques available. His studio was also an active adda for the contemporary artists, photographers and intellectuals. 

One of the milestones of his career was when he was the only photographer allowed by the famous Henri Cartier-Bresson to shoot his portrait. Jyotish Chakravarty excelled in the art of portraits and shot many splendid renditions including the famous still of Smita Patil from the movie Debshishu along with the portraits of Ravi Shankar, Ramkinkar Baij, Sarbari Roy Chowdhury etc. He was loyal to the art of black and white photography and never shifted to color photography. When the analogous technology was replaced by digital technology he withdrew silently. He sold his studio and remained in obscurity for the rest of his life. He passed away on 5 August 2007.