Captured Moment: A Life

In the early 1930s, the streets of Calcutta were frequented by a young man armed with a sketch book and photographic equipment, who was either patiently sketching a scene or clicking away with his camera. This was Shambhu Shaha (1905-1988), one of India's pioneering and best known photographers. Shaha's most famous photographs capture the last years of Rabindranath Tagore, one of the greatest thinkers India has produced, and the sylvan beauty of Santiniketan, the seat of Viswa-Bharati University, founded by Tagore himself. Although he is best known as 'Tagore's photographer', his work encompasses royal weddings, portraits of famous personalities and national leaders, the refugee influx into Calcutta in the early 1970s, street life, industrial photography and architecture.