O. N. Sharma - A devoted Art-Lover
(Phone: 0581-2573768)
Born in a village of District Aligarh (India) on 9th November 1918, O. N. Sharma happened to go to Lahore in 1935. There he learnt the basics of photography under the guidance of his brother-in-law. Due to his hard work and inborn aesthetic sense he got perfect in this art within a short phase. In 1942 he tied with Kinsay, a British firm of Musoorie as an artist. Later, in 1946, Mr. Sharma joined a reputed firm, Mahta in Srinagar. In this order he worked in Rawalpindi in the year 1947. During the beginning of his career he got in touch of famous pictorialist, Mr. R. R. Bharadwaj (popularly known as Guru Ji) who taught him fine points of photography art. Mr. Bharadwaj’s personality and work style left a deep impact on him. After the freedom of country Mr. Sharma came in touch of the Nawab of then Rampur State. Nawab of Rampur got deeply fascinated with his mastery over photography art. Nawab requested him to be the official photographer of his state. Mr. Sharma, who had got high-quality command on the technical and aesthetic aspects of photography art, accepted this invitation and came to Rampur. He worked with Nawab of Rampur for a long time. As he wanted to do something of his own, he finally shifted to Bareilly in about 1950 and opened his studio, named as Navyug Studio. His studio earned a big name and fame due to his hard work. He captured various big personalities of that period, such as past presidents of our country, Dr. S. Radhakrishnan and Sri. B. B. Giri, great actor Prithviraj Kapoor, Pradeep Kumar etc. Prithviraj Kapoor was in Bareilly during the mid of 1955 to perform his plays. He wanted his some artistic portraits and for this purpose he met Mr. Sharma. Sharma clicked his pictures whole heartedly. Prithviraj Kapoor liked one of the clicked portraits so much that he ordered 150 copies of the same. Being impressed with Mr. Sharma’s artistic ability, Prithviraj Kapoor invited him to Bombay. But his love for Bareilly stopped him to go anywhere else.
Mr. Sharma has been famous for various branches of photography, but is well known for his excellent black and white portraits. Perfect compositions, wonderful use of light, liveliness and meaningfulness have been the basic characteristics of his portraits. Today he is running in the 90th year of his age but his zest for photography art is still alive. Presently he is not very actively involved in studio work due to his health, but he is always ready to guide youngsters. He feels delighted to share his experiences with art lovers at all times. As he takes photography as a pure art, he along with a few art lovers of Bareilly founded Photo Vision Society some 18 years back. The aim behind the foundation of this society was to promote photography art. Currently he is the president of this society. This society, under his patronage, has organised various workshops and exhibitions of reputed artists of the country, group shows, spot photo contests for students, national/international exhibitions etc. Mr. Sharma’s never-ending passion works as a great source of inspiration for art lovers. ----Dr. Pankaj Sharma