Photography is such a potent medium. It pushes boundaries and challenges you to read beyond the obvious. As a viewer, it excites me…and I feel it is as strong and gripping an art form as painting

-Rajiv Saini, Architec

While maestros like Picasso, Degas and Gaugin used photography as the basis for their paintings, all of a sudden, contemporary artists – young and old – are resorting to it as a mode of artistic expression. The enthusiastic reception to their shows, opines Maria Louis, triggers the question whether conventional paintings could be eventually elbowed out of precious wall space by photo-art forms

Stepping into Sheena Sippy’s living room is virtually like partaking of a visual feast. With movie posters/billboards, vintage portraits and art photographs occupying almost all the available wall space, there is no doubt about this photographer’s passion for her medium. At the entrance itself, besides her own digitally manipulated prints and one by artist, Vivan Sundaram, you will find the work of Rafique Sayed, Swapan Parekh, Prasad Naik and Ketaki Sheth. Simply framed in black, these timeless black and white studies come alive against the stark white wall.

While it is recognised and represented in museums all over the world, art photography has yet to gain appreciation in India. "The arguments stem from the fact that a camera is a mechanical instrument," muses Bangalore-based photographer, Pallon Daruwalla, who recently collaborated with home fashion brand, Yamini, to present Cannanore – an unusual photo-fabric show. Detractors claim that photography requires none of the manual skills essential to drawing or painting; and argue that photography does not call for creativity because the subject is ‘ready-made’. Sippy has a challenge for such sceptics: "Buy your own canvas and a pot of paint…and see if you can produce a masterpiece!"

Regular Verve contributor, Mumbai-based Maria Louis, is a senior freelance writer/editor. Also a columnist, specialising in all things artistic, her critical reviews of art exhibitions keep her abreast of what is new in art circles.