Jaipur Photojournalism Seminar
Vipul Mudgal
Vipul Mudgal is the Director, Publics and Policies Programme at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), Delhi, where he is also heading the Inclusive Media for Change, a Ford Foundation funded project, which works to build bridges between mainstream media and rural India’s multiple crises.He has earlier held senior editorial positions at the Hindustan Times, India Today, BBC World Service and Asia Times in India, U.K., and Thailand. He has edited Lucknow and Jaipur editions of the Hindustan Times and headed the paper’s Research and Insight team for several years. As a political commentator he specialised on political and social violence and issues of democracy and sustainable development. He has extensively covered issues of marginalized communities in rural areas and India’s agrarian crises.
He has conducted extensive media research and over a dozen nationwide surveys to determine how people make sense of political, cultural and social processes around them. Vipul Mudgal was awarded doctorate in Media Sociology by Leicester University, U.K., in 1995 on media and political violence. He was also awarded the Nehru Centenary British Fellowship in 1991 and US Govt’s Jefferson Fellowship by the East-West Centre, Hawaii, in May 2003. He has presented academic seminars at the universities of Oxford (Queen Elizabeth Hall), Cambridge (Trinity College), Leicester (CMCR), and Hawaii (East-West Centre) among many other places. He is frequently invited for lectures, particularly on democratic responses to terrorism, at the Administrative Staff Colleges, communication courses for senior Armed Forces Officers and at the National Police Academy, Hyderabad. The Publics and Policies Programme focuses on issues of participatory democracy and mobilises academic knowledge and research for policy making. As the director of the programme Vipul also works on issues of development alternatives, food security, land and displacement, and transparency in legislative processes.
Aditya Arya
An eminent commercial and travel photographer, Aditya Arya began professional photography in 1980 after graduating in History from the St. Stephen’s College, Delhi University. After a brief stint in the Mumbai Film Industry where he did stills for some of the leading directors, he moved back to Delhi. In addition to his wide-ranging Commercial and Travel portfolio, his work has been published widely in books and travel magazines around the world. He is known for his expertise in the field of advertising and corporate photography, specializing in Products, Interiors and Food.
Over the last few years, he has been completely immersed in the subject and practice of photographic conservation. He has honed his skills and knowledge on preservation, restoration and archiving particularly through the documentation of historic photographic works from the famous Kulwant Roy Collection of the pre and post independence era. He has played a pivotal role in the establishment of India Photo Archive Foundation and the Neel Dongre Awards/Grants for Excellence in Photography.
At present, while also actively pursuing his professional advertising and commercial assignments, he divides his time between his photography archive and Museo Camera – the only Photography and Camera Museum in India.With more than 1000 rare and iconic cameras and other equipment, this museum traces the history of photography from the 1870s to the Digital Era.
Today in the fast paced world of megapixels he is also immersing himself in the slowness of analog processes and at the same time slowing down many born digital photographers and artists by mentoring them.
He has been on the Jury of the National Art Exhibition 2014 organized by Lalit Kala Akademi and many other national shows. He has also curated several shows of archival and contemporary visual works, both nationally and internationally. These include the National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi and the National Museum, New Delhi, and several galleries and museums in Canada, London, France, Spain.
Shailesh Raval
Completed Master in Journalism and Mass Communication from North Gujarat University He is a well known Photo Journalist in India by Profession, working with INDIA TODAY Group as A Principal Photographer since Last 25 years. He started his carrier with Gujarati News Paper SANDESH and GUJARAT SAMACHAR as a Photo-Journalist, He has been an active photo-journalist since 28 years, also his experience spans across various Gujarati educational institutions as honorary lecturers, and he has written six books to his credit as a Gujarati author. He is based in Ahmadabad but has worked pan India and Abroad.
Contribution towards 28 years of the changing face of Gujarat have been in terms of covering the vibrancies and gravity of the various news happenings like earthquakes, riots, floods, and other political uprisings. Efforts in Research based Journalism have been through stories photos (like “Other Jalian Wala Bagh”) which have been used as excerpts in TIME as well as The Independent – daily of London. Forbes, Prevention, Men’s Health, The Caravan, National Geo Graphic – Traveler, etc . Even He able to picture international personage and celebrities like Narendra Modi, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Mother Teresa, Sonia Gandhi, Mohan Bhagwat (RSS), which have found place in the Cover pages of INDIA TODAY.
And Lots of the National International Awards, Honors, Prizes, Photo Exhibition are in his bags since last three decade. He is also interested to start Photography college or National level Photography Institute in Gujarat.
His one of the best article first published in INDIA TODAY, and now in 2011 the same article published in fifth Standard English textbook CBSC Board as a one of the lesson. – “Equal Footing” Course book – 05, NEW BROADWAY- A Multi-skill course in English.
M.K. Venu
M.K. Venu is a Founding Editor of The Wire. As an active economic and political writer, he has held leadership roles in newspapers such as The Economic Times, The Financial Express and The Hindu. He has written extensively on economic policy matters for over a quarter century after India opened up its economy in 1991. He also wrote regular political economy columns on the edit pages of The Economic Times, Financial Express and Indian Express over the past two decades. He hosts a regular political-economy discussion called ‘State of the Economy’ on the national public broadcast channel RSTV. He has also been invited by Parliamentary Committees to give his views on public policy matters.
Rohit Parihar
Rohit Parihar is the Assistant Editor of India Today. After graduating in Physics (Honours), he studied Mass Communications at Panjab University, Chandigarh. He is in journalism for 23 years. He has covered Rajasthan, Haryana, Punjab, Chandigarh, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir. He joined India Today in 1996 and is based in Jaipur since 1997. He is an alumni of two prestigious international programmes, Chevening (UK) and International Visitors Leadership Programme (US).
He has won many honours and awards through his career in media. He has been awarded the Chevening Fellowship at University of Westmin st re, London in the year 2000. He was nominated and selected for the International Visitors Leadership Programme in Human Trafficking in US in 2006
and has also been awarded the Sawai Madho Singh Award for Investigative Journalism in the year 2006.
MS. Dharmendar Kanwar
Dharmendar Kanwar is a much awarded travel writer who began writing professionally soon after her graduation. She has written scripts for television documentaries and contributed stories and photographs to almost all the major magazines and
newspapers in the country.
Writing is a full-time activity for Dharmendar Kanwar, she has been equally involved with heritage conservations. She
has worked extensively with Rajasthan Tourism, for whom she has produced several award-winning brochures and
books. In an illustrious 25-year career, her contribution to the promotion of Rajasthan’s art and architectural heritage was recognized in no small measure by the grant of the Maharaja Vishan Singh Award for her contribution to the field of Travel & Tourism (2012). She was also awarded as the Best Travel Writer (English) in 1993-94 by the Government of Rajasthan.
Dharmendar was closely associated with Rajmata Gayatri Devi and among her many publications are two biographies of the celebrated Rajmata Gayatri Devi of Jaipur – Enduring Grace and The Last Queen of Jaipur. She is also the Managing Trustee of Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh Benevolent Trust, a charitable Trust started by the late Rajmata. She is also Convenor of the Jaipur Chapter of INTACH. Dharmendra is also the author of the Times of India Jaipur Food Guide since 2012. Her reviews can also be read on http://timescity.com/critic-Dharmendar.Kanwar.
Amongst the other most south after literature titles which have also been published are – Rajasthan Simply Colourful, Welcome to Rajasthan, The Jewel of Rajasthan, Delhi-Agra-Jaipur, Colourful Rajasthan, Jaipur: 10 Easy Walks, Temples of Jaipur, Palace on Wheels, Royal Rajasthan on Wheels, Hadauti: The Unexplored Rajasthan, Chittorgarh: The Braveheart of
Rajputana and Rambagh Palace and many more.
Dharmendra has also designed several brochures, cards, booklets, souvenirs, t-shirts, posters and annual reports.
Umesh Gogna
Umesh Gogna hails from a business family. While writing his thesis and shortlisting some photographs clicked by him, he realized that photography was his passion and soon decided to consider it as a full time profession. His work mostly comprises in the field of Handicrafts, Jewellery and the Hospitality Industry. A traveller at heart, Umesh Gogna loves to capture nature through his camera lens. Over the years he has spent a lot of time documenting the cultural architectural and natural heritage of Rajasthan and the Himalayas. The wilderness and the open paces of the desert and the mountains attract
and inspire him. His work has been published in several books on these subjects.
In order to help the young and amateur photographers, Gogna conducts workshops on subjects related to Portraiture, Photographing Jewelry, Fashion Photography, Digital Photography and Digital Post Production. He has conducted workshops for Canon India Ltd., Allahabad University, BITS Pilani Photography Club, Women’s Polytechnic College, Jaipur, Camarena (Multi Brand Stores in India), Central University of Bihar, Patna. Gogna is also a member of DPA (India’s Largest Stock Photo Agency) Dinodia Picture Agency, Mumbai. Gogna is also from March 2015 became Sony Alpha Mentor and Brand Ambassador and Conducted 150 plus Photography workshops allover India.