Kolkata's power man with an artistic touch

While steering the power major CESC’s road ahead plans, Sumantra Banerjee always gives an added colour to his aesthetic life too. It is his experience as an explorer and the ‘cerebral challenges’ he face to portray his photographs, which make him distinct among top honchos of India Inc.

Some may call his life a high-voltage one to suit a person at the helm of a power sector major. But for an itinerant shutterbug Sumantra Banerjee, the managing director CESC, it is just “another facet of the snapshot called life.”

Whether it is the barren wilderness of Alaska , midnight sailboat of Greenland, translucent blue glacial peaks of Pantagonia or the landscapes and ruins of rural India, photography is Banerjee’s aesthetic life.

 

Kolkatans will see the artistic face of this top honcho from the R P Sanjiv Goenka group’s flagship company in a solo photography exhibition, Dream on Canvas”, to be held at Emami Towers in E M Bypass from January 13-15. “These photographs, which cost between Rs 2,000 to Rs 42,000, can be used as a substitute for paintings which costs higher,” Banerjee says. The money raised from the exhibition will be used for philanthropic works of the Sumantra Banerjee Foundation. For Banerjee’s venture, corporates like Emami Chisel, HP and Nikon too also joining hands with him.

“One of my photographs was selected among the classic photographs of 2009 listed by Photolaureates.org. Even in last 18 months, five of my works were selected as finalists by the website,” he recalls.

Amid his busy schedule, Banerjee finds time from 8.30 pm everday for research on travel destinations and other post production works. In 2009 also, he conducted an exhibition in the city in which out of the 254 pictures displayed, 242 got sold.

“This time, we are exhibiting 184 photographs of 40x40 inch , 47.7x30 inch and of various sizes taken from different parts of the world.”

Though he started following photography as an art in 70s during his college days in the US, a professional approach started since 2005. Following the footsteps of his idol Brazilian photographer Sebastiao Salgado, who is an economist by profession, he says, “God gifts you with many facets it is a question of knowing which one to develop. For me, it is photography and power.”