Nemai Ghosh

Nemai Ghosh is an Indian photographer mostly known for working with Satyajit Ray Biographies reveal bare details about the maverick >> Read More... . He was born on the 8^th of May 1934 in Calcutta, Bengal Presidency, British India. He started his career as an actor in theatres in Kolkata with actor-director Utpal Dutt Utpal Dutt is a Veteran in Indian cinema who was a >> Read More... . He acted in a play called Angar (1959) about the exploitation of coal miners. His story of becoming a photographer is quite extraordinary. A friend of his owed Ghosh an amount of 240 rupees, which he settled with a lens. That’s how he got a camera, and the rest is history. He worked with Satyajit Ray for over 25 years as a still photographer. They first met in Rampurhat, West Bengal, where he was shooting “Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne” (The Adventures of Goopy and Bagha) in 1968. After that, impressed by Nemai’s work, Ray asked him to join, and they worked together on many projects. They worked together for two decades, starting with his first film, “Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne”, till Satyajit’s last film, “Agantuk”, in 1991.

After Ray’s death, he got numb and lost inspiration for his work. But he never gave up, and it changed after he did a series on the tribes of The Rann of Kutch. He also made a documentary on the tribal population of Bastar, Odisha and the Apatanis of Arunachal Pradesh. Some of his pioneering works include “The Faces of Indian Art: Through the Lens of Nemai Ghosh”, his book “Nemai Ghosh’s Kolkata”, and his collaboration with painter Paresh Maity. He has also been a jury member at the 2007 National Film Awards The National Film Awards gets presented every year >> Read More... and a recipient of Padma Shri in 2010. He was known for “The Kingdom of Diamonds” (1980), “Nidhiram Sardar” (1976) and “Jana Aranya” (1975). He suffered a cardiac arrest in Kolkata during the coronavirus outbreak. He died on the 25^th of March 2020 in Kolkata, West Bengal, India.