Family Photos Turn Into Award-Winning Book in Jamshedpur

When Varun Gazdar handed a box of old glass slides to two friends at his café in Jamshedpur, he had no idea it would become an award-winning book. The slides opened a window into his grandfather Keki Gazdar's world as a photographer in 1950s India.

Joyona Medhi and Abhishek Basu spent years transforming the Gazdar-Bharucha family archives into Sparseeing, a photobook that won the prestigious Alkazi grant in 2022. The book released in December and is now traveling to galleries across India.

Keki Gazdar was chief electrical officer at TELCO in Jamshedpur, a planned steel city so orderly it reminded the authors of The Truman Show. His early photos captured straight lines, grids, and visits from dignitaries like Prime Minister Nehru and wrestler Dara Singh.

But the real story emerged when they found Keki's travel diary. As he visited steel hubs in Birmingham and Brussels, his photography transformed from rigid documentation to joyful experimentation with friends and family.

The team discovered Keki's quirky side through the photos. He had a bodybuilding obsession and took unusual nude self-portraits. He photographed parks and Dimna Lake obsessively, revealing a man searching for his artistic voice.

Why This Inspires

Rather than making another dry family archive, Medhi and Basu took a bold creative leap. They imagined Keki sitting in his attic, looking through old photographs and searching for his own artistic language.

They wrote the book like a diary, weaving together fragments from Keki's actual writings, family interviews, and their own interpretations. The title Sparseeing means seeing from the point of view of fragments, inviting readers to join the dots themselves.

The collaborators fought over every picture and sentence, cutting ruthlessly. Photographer Basu pushed Medhi to delete explanatory text, while Medhi convinced him to add photos he initially resisted.

Their vision paid off beyond the award. They priced Sparseeing at just 1,290 rupees, making it one of the most affordable photobooks available so readers who can't usually buy expensive art books can access it.

The book proves that family archives don't have to gather dust in attics. With imagination and care, old photos can become fresh stories that connect past and present in surprising ways.