Homai Vyarawalla, 97, will receive a very special gift for Parsi New Year. The Baroda based legendary photographer is among four persons chosen to receive the first ever National Photo Awards, to be presented on August 19 by the Vice President of India Moham-mad Hamid Ansari. The country’s first woman photojournalist, who started her career as a freelancer with The Illustrated Weekly of India, is known for her "artistic work in the pre- and post-partition period,” notes The Times of India dated July 28, 2010. As per The Indian Express (IE) of July 28, "Vyarawalla’s work sweeps right across history, photographing the pre-partition era right up to the country attaining freedom and the events thereafter.”
Homai Vyarawalla: artistic work acknow-ledged
The Information and Broadcasting Ministry of India instituted these awards this year to commemorate the golden jubilee of its Photo Division. The awards include a cash prize of Rs 1.5 lakh, a shawl, memento and a citation. "The objective is to honor the creative and long-standing contribution of photographers,” as per a statement issued by the ministry and quoted in IE. While Vyarawalla and S. Paul, 79, former chief photographer of The Indian Express, will receive lifetime achievement awards, Calcutta’s Benu Sen, 79, and Bombay’s K. G. Maheshwari, 88, will be honored in the pictorialists category.