India's Art Scene Turns to Photography

Photography's power to lure collectors world-wide is matched by the pragmatic fact that it remains far more affordable than many art forms. An installation by Indian artist Subodh Gupta featuring metal utensils piled on a rickshaw recently brought $842,500 at auction, while work by Indian master painters like F.N. Souza command prices as high as $2.5 million. On the other hand, prices for a limited edition photograph by an artist in India range from 20,000 rupees to 600,000 rupees ($416 to $12,500). Over the past two years, such modest prices have attracted relatively younger Indian buyers in their 30s and 40s, seeking to experiment with a medium that their parents barely considered art. Hoteliers, restaurateurs and company directors have been tapping galleries to furnish their walls. Yuppies are turning to photographs for home décor. Vintage prints, once considered dusty relics, suddenly have cachet and fetch $5,000 or more from private dealers. Artists better known for installations, video and performance are now experimenting with digital cameras.

Contemporary photographers have seized on fresh interest from gallery owners and other patrons to find new audiences and escape expectations imposed by commercial commissions. "There is more of an incentive to do our own projects. We create totally under our own steam," says Clare Arni, a British photographer born in India who lives in Bangalore and makes a living primarily as an architectural photographer. In November, Ms. Arni exhibited a suite of works in vibrant colors documenting disappearing professions in Kolkata, New Delhi, Bangalore and Chennai, such as silk dyers, medicine grinders and painters of movie posters -- a product of 18 months of research and travel. The show sold out two editions of prints.

Some gallery owners contend that the current financial uncertainty might actually be good for photography-collecting by allowing it to mature without the crazed speculation that infected the overall Indian art market.

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