"When a hobby turned into a livelihood"

The New Indian Express, Sashi Nair, July 27, 2005

IT was in 1983 when her husband Krishnaswamy (an engineer, he had worked for TTK Group's Time Aids and also ran Chitra Talkies, his family business) gave up theatre that she, an amateur photographer, began to look at photography as serious business. Years earlier, for her 10th birthday, her father had gifted her a Brownie, a Kodak box-camera. Using her pocket money, she had bought black-and-white film rolls, taken pictures and developed them. Photography came to her naturally. "It opened a whole new world for me. The medium has become a part of me," says Usha Krish, Madra's first 'professional woman photographer,' who in 1983 chose industrial photography to earn a living. She focused on her work with a determination to learn on her own and to understand the subject thoroughly before taking a picture. Working with several leading industrial, commercial and design houses, Kris photographed their products for brochures, magazines, books and exhibitions. Her sensitivity to nature and endless discovery of it are reflected in some of her work. Her first solo show in Madras in 1992, for example, was titled 'Walk with Nature'. In January 1999, her exhibition at The Art Gallery in New Delhi's India International Centre, titled 'Asvattha: Tree of Life', displayed some magnificent pictures of the Banyan Tree at the Theosophical Society here. Krish has had other solo exhibitions, including one at the Centre for Photography as an Art Form, National Centre for Performing Arts, Mumbai: her last one in February 2002, at the IIC, Delhi, was titled 'Living with a Legend: Tiruvarur'.

Krish grew up i Kalka, Kasauli, Kakinada and Hyderabad - her father K Penathur was one of the youngest brigadiers in the Indian Army, and mother Kumudha Bai was one of the fist three women pilots to train at the Madras Flying Club. Kris studied at the Delhi Public School and Allen Memorial School in Mussorie before graduating in psychology from New Delhi's Indraprashta College. After marriage in 1967, she arrived in Madras and for 10 years taught psychology at the Cultural Academy. In 1982-83, she completed her master's in psychology. Her pictures of varied subjects began appearing in The Indian Express, The Hindu, Deccan Herald, Inside Outside and Discover India. Krish is now a visiting faculty member at the Xavier Institute of Communications, Mumbai. The past decade has seen her gravitate more towards temples, heritage, travel and the environment. Her pictures also appear in The Hindu Temple, Kerala, Vaastu, Bharata Natyam and The Cookery Book. In 2002, Kris received the Bharat Nirman Award for excellence in artistic photography.

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