Candid: Jawaharlal Nehru in a Homai Vyarawalla photo at the Rubin Museum (Alkazi Collection of Photography)
by HOLLAND COTTER
‘Candid,’ Photos by Homai Vyarawalla, at Rubin Museum
The Indian photographer Homai Vyarawalla, who died in January at 98, spoke many times, with undiminished regret, of two opportunities missed.
On Jan. 30, 1948, she left her home in New Delhi intending to film the elderly Mohandas K. Gandhi at his daily prayer meeting at Birla House in the city. Something distracted her, and she turned back. If she had continued on, she would have witnessed, and probably documented, Gandhi’s assassination.
Two weeks later she traveled with a party of international journalists to Allahabad to photograph the immersion of Gandhi’s ashes at the confluence the Ganges and Yamuna Rivers. At the last minute the boat assigned to reporters and photographers got stuck on a sandbar. The immersion went on without them. Again, she didn’t get the shot.
##### by HOLLAND COTTER
*'**Candid**,' Photos by Homai Vyarawalla, at Rubin Museum*
The Indian photographer Homai Vyarawalla, [who died in January at 98][1], spoke many times, with undiminished regret, of two opportunities missed.
[1]: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/29/world/asia/homai-vyarawalla-india-photojournalist-dies-at-98.html "Homai Vyarawalla, Pioneering Indian Photojournalist, Dies at 98, Haresh Pandya, NY Times, 28 January 2012"
On Jan. 30, 1948, she left her home in New Delhi intending to film the elderly Mohandas K. Gandhi at his daily prayer meeting at Birla House in the city. Something distracted her, and she turned back. If she had continued on, she would have witnessed, and probably documented, Gandhi's assassination.
Two weeks later she traveled with a party of international journalists to Allahabad to photograph the immersion of Gandhi's ashes at the confluence the Ganges and Yamuna Rivers. At the last minute the boat assigned to reporters and photographers got stuck on a sandbar. The immersion went on without them. Again, she didn't get the shot.
