Draft:Mukesh Parpiani

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Veteran Indian Photojournalist

Mukesh Parpiani is a veteran Indian photojournalist.

Over the past five decades, Mukesh Parpiani’s documentation of Bombay’s evolution into Mumbai has captured the city’s gradual transformation-political, social, and architectural, to technological.

Mukesh is best known for his coverage of the Mumbai Police and the 1992 Mumbai riots.

Parpiani served three prominent newspapers in Mumbai. Associated as their photo editor, he served The Daily, The Indian Express and The Mid-Day for nearly a decade each. In training a team of dynamic photojournalists, Parpiani was also instrumental in honing a number of 'photo scoops' - in the realms of natural calamities, terror attacks, gang wars, and even Bollywood!

Although his managerial responsibilities pertained largely to Mumbai, Parpiani also over saw projects in the broader Western region of India. Some of these included, covering the Bhopal gas tragedy and Gujarat riots.

Early Life

Much of Parpiani’s need to chronicle the unusual began at a very young age when he first began to help his brother. “My elder brother was fascinated by photography. He had a darkroom at home and I used to wash his prints,” he had said in an interview to Rediff News.

Gradually, he began to work towards achieving this dream. He enrolled at the Pillai School of Photography (1969-1970), after which, he worked in wedding and travel photography. During this brief stint, he realised that his city has so many intermingled narratives to offer, whose ever-evolving nature is simply waiting to be chronicled. He then enrolled to study Mass Communications at the Xaviers Institute of Communication, Mumbai, where he realised photojournalism - “the rush of making the photograph” - was his calling. Before getting into this field, Parpiani had to work as a freelancer with multiple newspapers, magazines, and agencies to establish himself as a news photographer. It was here that he realised the significance of getting iconic photographs.

Career

In 1981, Russi Karanjia, the Editor of The Daily (1981-89), a morning newspaper in Bombay, offered him a job as their photographer.

Ramnath Goenka, grandfather of Viveck Goenka, the Chairman and Managing Director of The Indian Express, had been following Parpiani’s work and career. Eventually, he decided to recruit Parpiani as the photo editor of The Indian Express’ seventeen editions (1989-99).

Thereafter, he joined the Mid-Day (2002-09), an afternoon tabloid, as their photo editor. Around the same time, the Mumbai Police also decided to launch a coffee table book on the department’s achievements. The Mumbai Police Department invited him to contribute some of his early images. In 2017, the book Mumbai Police was finally published.

Almost after a decade at Mid-Day, Parpiani, began to look for other opportunities as he was about to retire. In 2009, Khushroo Suntook, Chairman of the National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA), offered him to head the Dilip Piramal Art Gallery.

For 15 years, Parpiani has single-handedly nurtured and educated the next generation of photographers. He has organised over 300 talks, workshops, exhibitions, and seminars to disseminate photography. Parpiani’s perseverance has got stalwarts like David Zimmerman, Marc Prust, Shahidul Alam, Jay Ullal, Ketki Seth, and David D’souza. The Dilip Piramal Art Gallery regularly conducts seminars, exhibitions, and talks by photographers and educators for serious practitioners and enthusiasts alike.

Awards

In 2020, the Andhra Pradesh Photography Akademi awarded him the academy’s Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2021, he was honoured with a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Mantralaya News Photographers Association, Mumbai

Publications

As for publications, Mukesh has contributed to several prominent photo-books like Police Commissioner A. N. Roy's compendium of the history of Mumbai Police, and the Shiv Sena's official photo-biography of Balasaheb Thackeray. His latest publication “The Quest for Truth” is a photojournalist’s chronicle from Bombay to Mumbai.

Personal Life

A resident of Mumbai for last five decades, Mukesh resides with his wife Renu, and their children Manisha, Maansi, and Kashish.

References

https://www.amazon.in/Mumbai-Police-Deepak-Rao/dp/B08K3HKCKZ#detailBullets_feature_div

https://indianexpress.com/article/lifestyle/first-ever-ncpa-photo-festival-opens-today-in-mumbai/

https://www.artblogazine.com/2024/01/the-legacy-exhibition-of-photographs-by.html

https://www.mid-day.com/mumbai-guide/things-to-do/article/living-through-the-lens-23330327

https://www.rediff.com/cricket/report/when-the-god-of-cricket-was-16/20230424.htm

https://www.ncpamumbai.com/pdf/Photo%20Essay_June21.pdf

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MiLlo9tSwmQ

https://cms.thewire.in/culture/mukesh-parpiani-photo-story

https://jehangirartgallery.com/event/view/the-legacy

https://www.xaviercomm.org/events/photography-exhibition-by-journalism--mass-communications-students

https://m.rediff.com/news/jan/0801pho2.htm

https://www.aipsmedia.com/aips/pages/articles/2024/35373.html

https://www.filmispace.in/2024/01/20/legendary-photojournalist-mukesh-parpiani-showing-his-photo-exhibition-the-legacy-in-jehangir/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLcOUXfQIGM

https://sundayguardianlive.com/art/1611-elusive-alluring-perfect-moment

https://www.xaviercomm.org/events/journalism-students-visited-the-photo-exhibition

https://www.hindustantimes.com/art-and-culture/frames-from-the-past/story-0DuGvd9EPiTGG49ZsExKVN.html