Nemai Ghosh (photographer)

Nemai Ghosh (8 May 1934 – 25 March 2020)^[1] was a noted Indian photographer most known for working with Satyajit Ray,^[2] as a still photographer for over two decades, starting with Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne (1969) till Ray's last film Agantuk (1991).^[3][4] His work spans theatre, cinema, art, cultural documentation, and his home city of Kolkata, especially via black-and-white photography that captures both grand moments and intimate, fleeting ones.

He was a jury member at the 2007 National Film Awards,^[5][6] and was awarded the Padma Shri by Government of India in 2010.^[7]

• Born in Kolkata (then Calcutta), British India.
• He began his artistic involvement in theatre, performing with Utpal Dutt’s Little Theatre Group.
• His interest in photography was not planned; around 1966, by chance he acquired a camera and began experimenting.

Nemai Ghosh was married to Shibani Ghosh, who died on 28 March 2022.

The couple had three children:

• Their eldest son, Santanu Ghosh died of a brain tumour on 19 December 2001. He was survived by his wife Dalia Ghosh, daughter Shreya Ghosh, and son Soham Ghosh.
• Their younger son, Satyaki Ghosh, became a photographer, following in his father’s footsteps. He is married to Madhura Ghosh with two daughters, Opashona Ghosh and Pujarini Ghosh.
• Their youngest child, Sharmistha Ghosh, works as an educator.

• His first work with Satyajit Ray was on the film Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne (1969). From that point until Ray’s last film Agantuk (1991), Ghosh served as Ray’s still photographer.
• Satyajit Ray referred to him as a kind of “Boswell” of his life with a camera, in reference to James Boswell, the famous biographer.

He died on 25 March 2020. He was 85.^[8]

• Satyajit Ray 70 ans; Photographies de Nemai Ghosh; Contributions éditées par Alok B. Nandi,1991, Eiffel Editions, Bruxelles.
• Satyajit Ray at 70; Photographs by Nemai Ghosh; Contributions edited by Alok B. Nandi, 1993, Point of View and Orient Longman
• Nemai Ghosh (2000). Dramatic Moments: Photographs and Memories of Calcutta Theatre from the Sixties to the Nineties. Seagull Books. ISBN 978-81-7046-156-2.
• Nemai Ghosh (2003). Satyajit Ray: From Script to Screen. National Gallery of Modern Art.
• Nemai Ghosh (2004). Ray and the Blind Painter: An Odyssey Into the Inner Eye. New Age. ISBN 978-81-7819-041-9.
• Andrew Robinson; Nemai Ghosh (photographs) (2005). Satyajit Ray: A Vision of Cinema. I. B. Tauris. ISBN 978-1-84511-074-1.
• Nemai Ghosh; Yusuf Arakkal; Stuart Forster; Giridhar Khasnis (2007). The Street: Arakkal Paints a Picture. Art Alive Gallery.
• Nemai Ghosh; Geeti Sen (2007). Faces of Indian Art: Through the Lens of Nemai Ghosh. Art Alive Gallery. ISBN 978-81-901844-5-8.
• Nemai Ghosh (2011). Manik Da: Memoirs Of Satyajit Ray. HarperCollins. ISBN 978-93-5029-040-8.

• Samik Bandyopadhyay. Nemai Ghosh: Portfolio. Seagull Theatre Quarterly, Issue 2, Apr 1994. pp 52–57.

• "Portraits of Satyajit Ray". British Film Institute. 19 August 2013.
• Nemai Ghosh: Satyajit Ray and Beyond. DAG Exhibition
• Nemai Ghosh - a RAY of light. Documentary Film