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{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2018}}
{{Use Indian English|date=September 2018}}
{{Infobox person
|name = Mitter Bedi
|image =
|image_size =
|caption =
|birth_name =
|birth_date = {{Birth date|1926|1|26|df=y}}
|birth_place = [[Lahore]], India
|death_date = {{Death date and age|1985|3|11|1926|1|26|df=y}}
|death_place = Mumbai, India
|nationality = Indian
|occupation = Photographer and teacher
|known_for = Industrial photography in black-and-white photographs and Academy in photography in Mumbai
|children = Three daughters
}}
'''Mitter Bedi''' (26 January 1926{{Sfn|Series|1982|p=56}} – 11 March 1985{{Sfn|India|1985|p=117}}) was an Indian photographer, specialising in industrial photography, and a teacher.{{Sfn|University|2000|p=1}} Prior to his interest in the field there was little photographic use in advertising and his images have become classic icons. He was a recipient of several awards and he had his own photographic agency in [[Bombay]] (now Mumbai), which became well known in Asia.{{Sfn|India|1985|p=117}}

==Early life==
Mitter Bedi was born in [[Lahore]], [[British India]], on 26 January 1926. He studied at the [[D.A.V. College Managing Committee|D.A.V. School]] in Lahore from 1930 to 1940. He relocated to [[Bombay]] in 1940<ref name=White>{{Cite news|url=http://www.thehindu.com/2000/10/22/stories/13221278.htm|title= In black and white |date=22 October 2000|access-date=28 October 2015|work=[[The Hindu]]}}{{dead link|date=April 2021|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref> and pursued his college education from the [[Vidyasagar College]] in [[Calcutta]] from 1940 to 1943. He married Sarla Goenka, and they had three daughters, Preeti, Jyoti, and Gayatri.{{Sfn|Series|1982|p=56}}

==Career==
Bedi started his career by working for a printing press and the publicity department of a commercial firm and then took up a job in the film industry in 1947, the year of the [[Partition of India|partitioning]] of India and Pakistan into independent nations.<ref name=White/> At the start of his career in the early 1950s, his photographic assignments covered small events, mostly related to weddings and birthday celebrations<ref name=White/> or serving as the third or fourth assistant to a [[Bollywood]] film director.<ref name="Economic Times">{{cite news|last1=Doctor|first1=Vikram|title=Shot from the heart|url=http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/shot-from-the-heart/articleshow/1069573.cms|access-date=28 October 2015|publisher=The Economic Times|date=6 April 2005|location=Mumbai, India}}</ref> He frequented the airport to photograph passengers departing and arriving, which prompted his father-in-law B.N. Goenka, an industrialist, to suggest that Bedi change professions or travel abroad. However Bedi was firm in his resolve to continue in his chosen profession and said: "I am never going to leave the profession but bring it to the heights it deserves".<ref name=Kapoor>{{Cite web|last= Kapoor |first= Coomi |url=http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/mitter-bedi-the-leader-of-industrial-and-commercial-photography-in-india/1/354050.html|title=Photography: Plain beauty: Mitter Bedi: The leader of industrial and commercial photography in India|date=5 December 2013|access-date=28 October 2015|work=[[India Today]]}}</ref> In 1959 his photographic assignments saw a drastic change when he met [[Arthur D'Arzian]],<ref name="Economic Times" /> who had specialized in photography of the steel and oil industry, during a social function of the [[Standard Oil Company]] in Bombay. Bedi then pursued engagements of Industrial photography, a new field just taking off in the country.<ref name=Kapoor />

Bedi's assignments covered public sector corporations and private enterprises.<ref name=White/> From 1960 to 1985, he traversed the industrial regions of India taking pictures.{{Sfn|University|2000|p=1}} He took more than 2,000 photo shoots during the span of his career and covered projects from industries such as steel and oil, hospitality, mines, sugar, pharmaceuticals and many more.<ref name=White/> To propagate [[black-and-white]] photography as a profession in the country he wrote many articles and also established an academy in Bombay which is still operational under the direction of his family members.<ref name=White/> His photographs depicted a nation in which the factory and reactor dominated over the Indian people.{{Sfn|Thorner|2002|p=256}} He also worked as visiting professor in: K.C. College of Journalism, Bombay during 1974–75; [[National Institute of Design]], [[Ahmedabad]] in 1976; in Rajednra Prasad Institute of Communication, Bombay in 1978; and in [[SNDT Women's University]], Bombay, 1978.{{Sfn|Series|1982|p=56}} His academy in Bombay was a prominent institution in photography which enrolled national and international students and teachers.{{Sfn|Series|1982|p=56}}

Bedi's images have become classic icons of the industrialization which was carried out in India under [[Jawaharlal Nehru|Nehru]]. In spite of the limiting aspects of photographs taken primarily for advertising,<ref name=White /> Bedi introduced shape, design and geometric planes to create artistic rather than simply functional images.<ref name="Economic Times" /> His visual expressions and artistry were used by both the state and industrialists to drive national development. An [[Work of art|oeuvre]] of his black-and-white photographs taken during the period 1960s to 1970s, was held at the Piramal Centre for Photography representing an Art Form in Mumbai.<ref name=White/>

Bedi died in Bombay on 11 March 1985 due to a cardiac failure.{{Sfn|India|1985|p=117}}

==Awards==
Bedi's career achievements received acclaim through several awards. Some of the awards he received were: Two Kodak International Awards; nine Advertising Club Awards; and six Commercial Artists Guild (CAG) Awards. In 1984 he was honoured with CAG's "Photographer of the Year" award.<ref name=White/>

==Appreciation==
Writing in ''[[The Hindu]]'', [[Ranjit Hoskote]] observed:<ref name=White/> {{Cquote|It took the late Mitter Bedi's pioneering efforts to demonstrate that industrial photography had scope for creativity. Unwittingly, perhaps, he has also bequeathed us with a moving account of the bold initial success, and eventual tragic failure, of the Nehruvian idea of modernity}}.
Bedi's photographer friend [[Jehangir Gazdar]] stated in ''[[India Today]]'':<ref name=Kapoor/>{{Cquote|It was in fact Bedi who almost single-handedly built up industrial photography in India. There are many others now, but he was the grandfather of them all. He started out from nothing to build a small-scale industry.}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Bibliography==
*{{cite book| last= University|first=Cornell|title=Business World|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bKdaAAAAYAAJ|date=January 2000|publisher=Ananda Bazar Patrika Limited}}
*{{cite book|last=India|first=Press Institute of|title=Vidura|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=totZAAAAMAAJ|year=1985|publisher=C. Sarkar}}
*{{cite book|last=Series|first= Contemporary arts |title=Contemporary Photographers|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZosVAQAAMAAJ|year=1982|publisher=St. Martin's Press|isbn=978-0-312-16791-2}}
*{{cite book|last= Thorner |first=Alice |title=Land, Labour and Rights|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ya05lqA0LfgC&pg=PA256|year=2002|publisher=Anthem Press|isbn=978-1-84331-071-6}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bedi, Mitter}}
[[Category:1926 births]]
[[Category:1985 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian photographers]]
[[Category:Vidyasagar College alumni]]
[[Category:People from Lahore]]
[[Category:Pakistani photographers]]

Mitter Bedi - Revision history

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