Sudharak Olwe
is a Mumbai-based photojournalist since 1988 and has worked as a press
photographer with some of the leading newspapers in India. He is presently the
Photo Editor of the country's largest read Marathi Newspaper, Lokmat.
His manual
efforts to capture the disparity in the society, ambiguity of identity as scavenger (literally picking and cleaning garbage,
forcing them to adapt to unhygienic conditions of living or playing a literally
physical host to clear away the lust) or a simple identity of being a human
being, has been recognised as a voice of downtrodden, dissed, maltreated
communities from all over India, has fetched him highest civilian honour ‘Padma
Shri’ of 2016.
 |
| Sudharak Olwe, receiving his more than well-deserved Padma Shri from the President in Rashtrapati Bhawan (Photo : Delhi Photo Festival/ facebook ) |
Personally I
feel applauding only for prestigious civilian honour Padma Shri is not an
enough appreciation. I heartily appreciate his passionate guts to venture and
probe into the lives which are completely ignored and neglected and remembers
by us for mean intensions only. He has made an attempt to bring their life
stories in front of the society by personally interacting with them, visiting
their dull, dingy rooms called home, hearing the bitter sweet survival attempts
in those pathetic conditions all the while capturing their physical living
conditions, emotional outburst and pitiful survival instinct. Because of his visual and textual records
many sensitive hearts are bound to become empathetic. Truly, his photography is
empathetic in nature. Otherwise, the only time when we remember these people
are when their absence leaves our surrounding filled with rotting smell and
garbage heaps around, the time when the physical desire escalates to be a lust,
to slake off this desire people hunt the lanes of these maltreated ‘human
beings’.
There is
always a reason behind every action that we take. So also SudharakOlwe recalls
his days on the streets of Hyderabad when he had ran away from his home in
Mumbai. The poverty and hardships that he saw and experienced among the
roadside dwellers made him understand and probe into the lives and feelings.
His personal experience worked wonders than his educational qualification and
today he has established himself as a voice of ignored and belittled ones.
 |
| Photo : Sudharak Owle |
His works
also include the life stories of people from rural areas who are downtrodden,
poverty stricken, completely under the sway of orthodoxy and yet in some areas
of India people are coming out of their conventional beliefs.
Presently
along with being the Photo Editor of newspaper Lokmat, he heads the Photography
promotion Trust, which aims to spread the knowledge of photography in young
adults not only in urban areas but in the rural side too. He has a Diploma in
Photography from the Sir J. J. Institute of Applied Art (1986), Mumbai and also
a Diploma in Film and Video Production (1992) from St. Xavier's College,
Mumbai.
Heartiest
thanks to Shri. Sudharak Owle to bring into limelight the lives living in dark
and Congratulations for the recognition of your work!
By Pankaja JK (Art Blogazine.com)
