Tribute To A Legend : O. N. Sharma, ASIIPC

Tribute To A Legend

......

O. N. Sharma, ASIIPC

------.....................

Friends,

Mr. O. N. Sharma of Bareilly (U.P, India) was a photo artist of high repute. He passed away on 13 August, 2010 at the age of 92. Passing away of Mr. Sharma is a big loss to the world of photography art. Here is an effort to through light on his life.

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. Hereafter, he worked in Rawalpindi in the year 1947. During this period he got in touch of famous pictorialist, Mr. R. R. Bharadwaj (popularly known as Guru Ji). Mr. Bharadwaj taught him fine points of photography art. Mr. Bhradwaj’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 shifted 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 came to Bareilly in 1955 to perform his plays. He wanted some artistic self-portraits, and for this purpose he met Mr. O. N. Sharma. Mr. 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 was famous for various branches of photography, but he is well known for his excellent black and white portraits. Perfect composition, wonderful use of light, liveliness and meaningfulness had been the basic characteristics of his portraits.

....

The India International Photographic Council, Delhi honoured him with its "Associateship" in 2009.

...... ...

......

Sri O. N. Sharma was an artist of distinction and an excellent human being. There is no equivalent to his artistic approach . He, along with his fellow photo-artists, founded Photo Vision Society in Bareilly about 20 years back to promote photography as an art. Due to his patronage and guidance, Photo Vision is well known all over the country today. He was a guide to numerous art lovers and was always ready to help them. Sri Sharma consistently bestowed his true affection on the art lovers. It is difficult to find a great human being like him in today’s era. His precious services to the field of photography art, and his cultured behaviour will be remembered forever.

...
--Dr. Pankaj Sharma

.....