The photographs of Shobha Deepak Singh – David Hume Kennerly, Pulitzer Prize winning photographer

I was fortunate to meet Shobha Deepak Singh and to see her pictures on a recent trip to India. Her work takes you directly to the heart of dance, and reveals the beauty and poetry of the performers as they execute their art. Her photos are a window into the world of dance, and they are taken from a room with a great view! She doesn’t use a flash, a tripod, and shoots only with film. Shobha told me that she, “has no idea what will happen,” as she shoots the photos, but what does occur is pure magic.

Shobha captures the art of the dancer, the musician and the actor. Their fragility and fleeting quality allow for no repetition, no intrusion, no second and third takes, certainly no press of the ‘back’ button to recover the special moments. Her training in Kathak, her intimate knowledge of music, and immersion with the Shri Ram Bharatiya Kala Kendra’s repertory’s round-the-clock production schedules have given her the kind of reflexes usually only found in professional athletes, and the ability to freeze at their peak the decisive moments of dance.

By virtue of having spent a lifetime with performing artists of all kinds, her photographs, are both a record and a revelation, and perhaps most important, a piece of documentary evidence of the wonderful things that have occurred in front of her camera. Her attempt is always to capture the movement as opposed to ‘fair and lovely’ photos. To that end her works reflects the artistry and dedication of her subjects, melding the two worlds into one.

Simon Gentry, the Houston dance photographer, could have been describing Shobha when he said, “My medium is light and its interruption, the dancer is in fact a moving canvas, constantly changing and shifting, and in doing so interrupting the light.” He speaks eloquently of the quest of the dance photographer, certainly epitomized by the work of Shobha Deepak Singh.
A camera in the hands of a true artist is a tool that captures the essence and beauty of a subject, and Shobha is one of the best. Her photographs not only illustrate the color and motion of dance, but are at the center of why we are in such awe of not only the performers, but also of masters of illumination like Shobha who translate the dancer’s genius into such beautiful photographs.
As someone who has been a professional photographer for almost 50 years, I am a keen observer and chronicler of the human condition. Even after decades of travelling the earth taking my own brand of pictures, I remain a student of imagery, and love looking at photos from a wide range of talented photographers. I place Shobha’s work in that top tier of photographs that I have seen and admired. I find that her personal energy transmits itself into every frame that she takes, and the end result is electrifying. The connection between the dancers and Shobha is a match made in the celestial world!

. . . David Hume Kennerly, Pulitzer Prize winning photographer

About Shobha

Shobha Deepak Singh was born in October 1943; had her schooling at Modern School and graduated from Delhi University in 1963 (Eco Hons).

She joined DCM as a Management Trainee in 1964 and was involved in marketing and advertising of the company’s leading product lines .She was married in 1967.

She joined Bhartiya Kala Kendra in 1968 and was the first Manager of Kamani Auditorium. Shobha went on to specialise in designing of costumes and ornaments- a field in which she become a trailblazer. Later on, she took over the task of script writing and directing of the Kendra’s ballets. During the past four decades she has for over thirty ballets/dance dramas of the Kendra.

During this period, in 1977, she also completed her degree in “Bachelor of Performing Arts”. She received her diploma in theatre direction in 1996.

In 1992, she joined the Direction Course of Living Theatre under the tutelage of Mar. E. Alkazi During this tenure, she was responsible for the music of several plays. She was Assistant Director to Mr Alkazi, for four of his eight lays.

Shobha has a natural flair for photography and has actually been shooting for four decades.

She has had several solo photography shows.
Her Photographs have been used extensively in leading newspapers and magazines.
Many a time , her images have been used to make a book.
Analogue photography is her forte.
She is self taught, never used a flash and has a bank of 300000 negatives.
Her mentor is E Alkazi and she believes that she would like to capture movement in dance and emotion in theatre.

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