S Paul

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This is a collection of articles archived for the excellence of their content.

Early life

August 17, 2017: The Indian Express

Bandeep Singh, August 24, 2017: India Today

A Humanist Photographer, S Paul: 1930-2017

S Paul- (Express Photo By Neeraj Paul)
From: August 18, 2017: The Indian Express

Some of S Paul’s work (Express Photos)
From: August 18, 2017: The Indian Express

S Paul was a path-breaker in the field of Indian photojournalism transformed an era of romantic and pictorial photography into one of vibrant, living images.

Born in the Jhang district of Pakistan, S Paul first found work as a photographer in the '50s in Simla, where he set up a department of photography for the state government. His best professional phase was as chief photographer of Indian Express which he joined in 1962. It was the age when independent India's visual identity was being fashioned by a new generation of photographers of the likes of Sunil Janah, TS Satyan, Kishor Parekh and S Paul, whose humanism and empathy replaced the ethnographic and colonial gaze of the early British photographers. S Paul is best remembered for his strong pictorial compositions of life on the margins: children at play, farmers in rustic landscapes, human forms at work. A strong pictorial appeal was central to his work as photojournalist for 22 years. In one famous instance, at an outdoor inauguration by Indira Gandhi, at the very critical point where she was to cut the ribbon, S Paul chose instead to photograph a line of swans passing overhead.

Achievements

Bandeep Singh, August 24, 2017: India Today

Aug 18, 2017: The Times of India

Photograph by S Paul-I
From: Bandeep Singh, August 24, 2017: India Today

Photograph by S Paul-II
From: Bandeep Singh, August 24, 2017: India Today

Photograph by S Paul-III
From: Bandeep Singh, August 24, 2017: India Today

Arguably India's most awarded photographer, S Paul has won almost every prestigious international photo contest, and his images have been published in reputed photography publications. His penchant for the perfect single shot, often of a simple subject, is sometimes criticised for lacking narrative structure or curatorial vision. Despite the huge volume of work, he does not have even one photobook to his name. "That is because he was a perfectionist and wanted everything his way, which would make no commercial sense to a publisher," says his photographer son Dheeraj Paul. This, however, had no bearing on his stature as one of India's most skilled and large-hearted photographers. In a country which for long had no training institutes for photography, S Paul mentored a whole generation of photographers, among them his famous younger brother, Raghu Rai. It is in their fond stories of him that S Paul's life has its best exposure.

He also kept getting published in the best of journals, winning prestigious awards. Paul was the first Indian whose portfolio of four pictures was published by the celebrated British Journal of Photography in 1967.

He was the first Indian to win Nikon International photo contest in 1971. In 2010, he was conferred with the National Award for Lifetime Achievement in Photography.