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World Music Day: Four decades of music comes alive as Lucknow man puts up exhibition of rare concert pics
On the eve of the exhibition, to be held at the LKA, Sinha was meticulously directing workers to put up his precious work of five decades against white background walls.
LUCKNOW If a picture is worth a thousand words, then Lucknow-resident Rakesh Sinha has material enough for multiple novels. Over the past five decades, Sinha has clicked several legendary singers and musicians performing at live concerts and framed all these snaps for music memorabilia like no other.
On the occasion of World Music Day (June 21) on Wednesday, Sinha will be putting up all the rare pics clicked by him at an exhibition titled ‘Swar Virasat’. The exhibition, being jointly organised by the Lalit Kala Akademi (LKA) and the ‘Sonchiraiya’ foundation, will showcase about 350 photographs (mostly black and white) captured by Sinha between 1974 and 2023.
On the eve of the exhibition, to be held at the LKA, Sinha was meticulously directing workers to put up his precious work of five decades against white background walls
Recipient of the Sangeet Natak Akademi award for his contribution to classical photography in 2007, Sinha has devoted his life to countless such pictures -- starting from the black and white era to the current era of vibrant colours.
Sinha’s collection includes photographs of renowned artistes -- including Pandit Ravi Shankar, Bhimsen Joshi, Pandit Jasraj, Kishori Amonkar, and Kumar Gandharva, and several other stalwarts. “These collections are the outcome of years of hard work. I collected them out of personal interest,” said Sinha, a retired HAL employee who started as a freelance photographer and kept his passion alive even during his full-time job.
Sinha’s archive is not limited to photographs of classical music but also has themed collections of various dance forms of India, theatres, artistes, literary personalities, and even Ram Leela staging, among other folk-art forms. Recently, over 200 collections of pictures on theatre were also exhibited at the Darpan Theatre festival at Sangeet Natak Akademi. So far, Sinha has exhibited his work in over 14 such exhibitions across India.
He has also been conferred with the Rashtriya Yuva Puraskar in 1994 and the Ram Swaroop Sindoor Award in 2019, among others. “This visual art form is unique in itself and such an exhibition on a particular theme of music has not been heard in a longtime. Despite being a thankless job, it is a great initiative to acknowledge their art,” said Devendra Tripathi, regional secretary, LKA, Lucknow.
“Capturing an artist’s dedication and musical meditation within a moment through a lens is a work of art itself. Such people have a huge contribution to keeping art alive and they should be promoted,” said folk singer Malini Awasthi. The exhibition will be inaugurated by Mukesh Kumar Meshram, principal secretary, tourism and cultural department.
