Photography Strictly Prohibited, an exhibition of photographs by the late Navroze Contractor gets underway at Goethe Zentrum Hyderabad in Banjara Hills. Curated by Sanjiv Shah, Anuj Ambalal and Himanshu Panchal, the retrospective exhibition, to be inaugurated by writer-director Deepa Dhanraj, being held as part of the Indian Photo Festival (IPF) 2024 will feature select works of Navroze, a still photographer, cinematographer, writer and bike enthusiast. The exhibition assumes significance as Navroze’s photos — except for a series on jazz and wrestlers from Dharwad — have never been shown publicly.
Visitors can expect a gamut of works and his evolution as an artist, from his early days to the time he was behind the camera.’ The curators went through more than 20,000 negatives to put together a collection of his works, which would reflect ‘how he looked at the world because he was not a conventional photographer or a photojournalist and never did consistent stories’. “According to me — and I might be wrong— photography, for Navroze, was a way to hone his skill as a cinematographer because that required a connection with people, to understand how they behave and move,” says filmmaker Sanjiv, Navroze’s friend for more than three decades, who has also written a book on him.
(Navroze was the cameraman for most of Sanjiv’s films). Another display of around 200 photographs of his is currently on at Satya Art Gallery in Ahmedabad. Bond with people Navroze Contr.
