In a foreword to Sudharak Olwe's celebrated anthology of photographs of Mumbai's conservancy workers In Search of Dignity And Justice, Ratan Tata called his "sensitive photography" an eye-opener. "It has captured and brought to our consciousness, the plight of a group of people we seem to have relegated to a collective blind spot," said the corporate captain. And it was this work that saw the Mumbai-based photojournalist being named for a Padma Shri for social work last week.
Olwe fell back on his signature self-effacing modesty in his reaction. "I'm merely capturing images. But imagine the plight of nearly 40,000 conservancy workers who live a life shorn of all dignity to keep our cities clean. I hope the fact that this award comes from the government also underlines a commitment to eliminating manual conservancy work."
Currently with the Lokmat group, Olwe has been a photojournalist with several media organisations, including dna. Most of us who have worked with him know him as an affable and friendly colleague who brings a signature style to his photography not only in the choice of subject but even in its treatment. This consistency about his work is as trademark as the crisp white shirts and blue jeans he's always seen in. While his camera has captured moving images of some of the biggest news and feature stories of our times, it is in his documentation of change and afflictions of society, that we see Olwe come into his own.
No wonder then that his work has been exhibited and published around the world. This recipient of the National Foundation Media Fellowship in India in 1999-2000 was the only photographer from India to be invited to exhibit his work at the World Press Photo exhibition, Amsterdam, for his work on gender and environment a year later.
In 2004, he published his first book, Spirited Souls: Winning Women of Mumbai. A year later, he was conferred the prestigious All Roads Photographers Award by National Geographic. This led to an exhibition of his work on conservancy workers of Mumbai in Washington DC.
This 2006 brand ambassador for Manfrotto, the global photography equipment major, had his work on conservancy workers exhibited and catalogued to create social awareness.
Whether representing India at the photography society of Japan, participating in the Noorderlicht Photofestival at Fries museum, Leeuwarden, the Netherlands or collaborating with international greats like German photographer Helena Schätzle, he's done it all.
Yet this Akola-born Maharashtrian carries all these achievements very lightly on his shoulders. "I come from really humble beginnings. When young, fed up of what I thought was a miserable life, I'd once run away from home to Hyderabad for a few months. There, as I lived on the streets, sleeping on shop fronts and pavements, I saw up-close acute poverty and misery of a kind I hadn't ever seen. Though it did teach me to count my blessings and look at what I had not what I didn't, it also inculcated a deep sense of empathy," says the 50-year-old.
Though he has had formal training in photography from the Sir JJ Institute of Applied Art (1986), and in Film and Video Production from Xavier Institute of Communication, he credits his time spent in Hyderabad for the way his photographs, irrespective of subject, veer to the human angle.
Olwe says he will continue to hold a mirror to society about its dehumanising of conservancy workers for as long as he has a camera in his hand. "It is my hope that our collective conscience as a society will help us break shackles of what is essentially slavery and untouchability in a new avatar."
We join the Padma awardee in his hope.
