Homai Vyarawalla, India’s first female photographer. Homai Vyarawalla was born in a middle class family in Navsari, Gujarat. Vyarawala was born on 13 December 1913. His father was an actor in Parsi Urdu Theatre. He was brought up in Mumbai and did photography with his friends Manekshaw Vyarwala and J.J. Learned from School of Art.
Homai Vyarawalla entered the beautiful world of photography in 1938. This was the time when the camera was nothing less than a surprise for the common people. In such a situation, it was a big deal for Homai Vyarawalla to become a photographer. Through his photography, Homai Vyarawalla always tried to depict the social and political life of a changing nation. Homai Vyarawalla also captured photographs of the flag hoisted for the first time at the Red Fort in August 1947, the departure of Lord Mountbatten from India, the last visit of Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and Lal Bahadur Shastri.
Vyarawalla’s first picture was published in the Bombay Chronicle, for which he was paid Re 1 for each of his photographs. After marriage, Homai Vyarawalla moved to Delhi with her husband. Here Homai Vyarawalla took many photographs during independence as an employee of the British Information Services.
After World War II, Homai Vyarawalla started working for the Illustrated Weekly of India magazine. which lasted till 1970. Apart from this, many black and white photographs taken by Homai Vyarawalla have appeared as photo-stories in Time, Life, The Black Star and other international publications.
Vyarawalla left professional photography in 1970, after the death of her husband. She moved with her son Farooq to BITS Pilani, Rajasthan, where her son studied. But his son died in 1989 due to cancer. After the death of her son and husband, she started living alone in an apartment in Baroda, Gujarat. In 2011, he was awarded the Padma Vibhushan by the Government of India. In January 2012, Vyarawalla fractured his hip bone after falling from his bed. His neighbors took him to the hospital. Homi was suffering from lung disease for a long time due to which she was not able to breathe properly. On 15 January 2012, he breathed his last at 10.30 am.
