WHEN Kolkata-based photographer Nemai Ghosh tells you about the event that set him on the shutterbug path 30 years ago, it just serves to enhance Ms Spontaneity’s reputation. Ghosh was tailing friend Banshi Chandra on Satyajit Ray’s sets. ‘‘There was a bit of cut-piece film lying around, which I loaded into my click-and-point and captured the guru in one of his most intense moments,’’ says the 70-year-old, who is showing some of his prize photographs at Mumbai’s Sakshi Art Gallery. The next day, when he developed the print and gingerly handed it to Chandra who showed it to Ray, Ghosh had no clue Ray would flip for it. He immediately appointed the young enthusiast on his sets as the unit’s still photographer. ‘‘I worked with Ray for 25 years. And haven’t worked with a film-maker after he passed away in 1999,’’ says Ghosh, who shared an intense bond with the director. The photographer actually began his career as an actor with Utpal Dutt’s Little Theatre Group. When he wasn’t on stage, he’d spend his time sitting in the darkened theatre watching performances, his lens trained on the artistes. That department has been left to son Satyaki, who has followed in his father’s footsteps, although ‘‘he’s taken up commercial advertising type of photography,’’ says Ghosh. Next up is a first-time venture with colour. Ghosh is busy seeking out big artists to try and get them with their canvases. ‘‘While there is a lot of colour in black-and-white photography, if I’m going to take pictures of an artist and his painting, it will have to be colour, na?’’ he says with a knowing smile. Rushing around cities at 70 is not easy, but Ghosh leads a very ‘‘strict’’ life. ‘‘I don’t drink or smoke, my only vice is tea. And I make sure I get a good walk every morning at five,’’ says Ghosh, who then shyly admits he once had a glass of wine with the late Henri Cartier-Bresson ‘‘How could I refuse?’’ (Nemai Ghosh’s exhibition is on at Sakshi Art Gallery,Mumbai, till August 28)
