Jain Spirit 2003 10 No 16

Author(s): Jain Spirit UK
Publisher: UK Young Jains

Page 51

Creative Inspiration
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his foundation and advanced classes. In 1971, he turned professional. His big break followed a group exhibition at the Jehangir Art Gallery, which had been seen by the editor of one of the Times of India Group magazines, who decided to publish one of his photos. Through the 70s and 80s Jagdish Agarwal's name would burn ever brighter in the world of Indian photography. His beautiful photos, more often than not in black and white, occasionally betraying influences of such masters as Henri Cartier Bresson and Ernst Haas, would appear in seven one-man shows, most notably at the Southern Lights Gallery in San Antonio, Texas, USA. There would be two books published: India - a Study in Colour, the other going into reprint at present as Bombay to Mumbai. He had a client list which included Air India, Bayer, Phillips and Kodak. The boy with the box camera had become a successful and respected photographer.
Come the mid-eighties, and Agarwal found that he was spending ever more time sourcing images from fellow photographers for his clients. This is how the picture agency was born. It was given the name Dinodia in recognition of the Agarwal family roots in the village of Dinod in Harayana. With a reputation for honesty, integrity and growing sales, entire libraries and back catalogues were handed to Dinodia to represent. Today, it is the largest image library in India, with
over half a million slides and prints by three hundred photographers including such internationally know cameramen as Ashvin Mehta, Anil Dave, and Hari Mahidar.
The job of photo editing Jain Spirit would be a far more difficult proposition without Dinodia, for their collection of photographs relating to Jainism is greater than those of all the western libraries put together. Photo libraries work by identifying the gaps in their archives then sending out photographers to shoot the necessary images to plug the gaps. The images are nearly always shot on low I.S.O. rated transparency film which was traditionally better for reproduction. These slides are then edited down: the best going to the website; others to be filed and the rest to be rejected. Enter the client via the Internet, the phone or by personal visit. Obviously the website can only contain a limited number of images. The Internet side of the business is now run by Tushar Agarwal, Jagdish's son, who joined the firm in 2001.
If there is no suitable image on the website, a request to Tushar will be responded to with a selection of photos which can be accessed via a link or received by email. Failing all of these methods, Dinodia will dispatch a cameraman to shoot that specific photograph for you. In general terms, a visit to the library pays the best dividends
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Graphics and Photos : James Maturin-Baird
September - November 2003 . Jain Spirit
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