Prabuddha Dasgupta

Prabuddha Dasgupta was born in Kolkata in September 1956. His father was, Prodosh Das Gupta, a sculptor[3] and curator of the National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA), Delhi from 1957 to 1970; the family stayed within the premises.[6] In the 1970s, his father moved to Nizamuddin West, an artists' colony in Delhi, where he stayed for most of his career.[7] He graduated in History from Hindu College, University of Delhi (1973–1975).[8]

Dasgupta started his career as copywriter with the advertising agency Everest, before turning to photography full-time in the late 1980s.[3][8] During his career as a commercial photographer, which took off with a campaign for Blue Lagoon Jeans,[9] Dasgupta worked with the first generation of Indian supermodels: Madhu Sapre, Feroze Gujral, Shyamolie Verma and Mehr Jesia. According to historian, William Dalrymple, with whom he worked on his book Edge of Faith, "Rohit Khosla and Rohit Bal, along with Dasgupta, invented glamour in India."[8] A self-taught photographer, he received the Yves Saint Laurent grant for photography in 1991,[10] for his photograph of model Feroze Gujral, shot for designer Suneet Varma.[8][11]

He shot the first advertisements of KamaSutra condoms in 1991, with models Pooja Bedi and Marc Robinson, which not only became popular, but also turned KS into India's top-selling condom brand.[12][13] Another ad campaign he shot, was for 'Tuff Shoes' in 1995, which featured models, Milind Soman and Madhu Sapre.[2][7]

Dasgupta worked for Vogue, Elle, Harper's Bazaar and GQ. He published several art books of his photographs, including Women (1996),[3][14] Ladakh (2000) with landscapes of Ladakh,[10] and his 2009 book Edge of Faith authored by William Dalrymple, with portraits of the Catholic community in Goa, was published in 2009.[11][15] His work has been internationally exhibited, in solo and group shows and is held in the collections at Museo Ken Damy, Brescia (Italy) and Galleria Carla Sozzani, Milan.[14][16] His first personal show titled, Longing was held in New York in 2007, and was reviewed by The Paris Review.[17] During his career he also mentored "a generation" of photographers, including Tarun Khiwal and Bharat Sikka, who assisted him in the 1990s.[11]

In his later years, Dasgupta moved to Goa.[3] He died in Alibaug near Mumbai, following a heart attack on the way to the airport, after a fashion shoot in Alibaug, age 55.[4][10] A memorial meeting in his honour was held on 25 August 2013 at NGMA, New Delhi, wherein tributes were paid by Mira Nair, Raghu Rai and Dayanita Singh; the gathering ended with an audio-visual montage of his works.[18][19]

As a tribute to him, the theme of the 2nd Delhi Photo Festival (2013) was chosen as "Grace", inspired by a talk Dasgupta gave at the 1st edition of the festival in 2011, "I want to have a long string of images, held together by grace, because grace is that undefineable, non-rational, non-linear word that I am looking for…"[20][21]