M Y L I F E A S A P H OTO G R A P H E R PA L L I G A J R E E F B I P P
MY LIFE AS A PHOTOGRAPHER PALLI GAJREE OAM, FBIPP, Hon.FRPS
Evening Stroll © Palli Gajree
Dorothy © Palli Gajree
The longest and oldest Australian-based member of the BIPP, Royal Photographic Society and the Photographic Society of America, Palli Gajree, has had a photographic career that's extended from taking pictures to judging, curating exhibitions and teaching. In this piece, he returns to day one and takes us on his fascinating photographic journey.
I
was born and brought up in Kenya, my parents having migrated from North India back in the mid-20s.
My interest in photography began at a young age of 15, when I saved enough pocket money to invest in a Kodak 127 folding camera just after the last war. It had only cost me an equivalent of $3.00 then! Enthusiasm in portraiture developed and in 1951 I added a twin-lens Rolleiflex to my equipment. Relatives, friends and anyone else who could be persuaded were posing in front of my new camera. Two years later, in 1953, this interest in portraiture took a new turn when I travelled to the United Kingdom to do a two-year full-time course in photography at the Manchester College of Technology (now known as Manchester Metropolitan University). 62 the PHOTOGRAPHER / 2023 / Issue One
After the completion of studies, I turned to London and joined the West-End portrait studio with the wellknown photographer, the late Walter Bird, FIBP, FRPS. Two years’ experience gained from this studio proved most beneficial and any success I achieved in portrait work is largely attributed to this great master of portrait photography. Bird himself was a keen Salon exhibitor which was to provide even further incentive in competing with other exhibitors around the world. My first exhibition success came in 1957 when one of my portraits taken at Walter Bird Studios was accepted and shown at the London Salon of Photography. The same portrait was subsequently selected and reproduced in The British Journal Photographic Almanac 1958 as well as Photograms of the Year 1958.
