Profile of Prof. Manohar G. Desai

Prof. Manohar Desai,  Director of National Institute of Photography, started doing photography in the year 1974. He acquired knowledge in photography mainly by reading books. That was a time when education in photography was hardly available. Prof. Desai is a Science Graduate. As photography is an art based on scientific principles he wanted to get deep theoretical knowledge of the subject, which he had to acquire by reading books only. Though some of his friends helped him, he got the practical training mainly by doing trial and error.

Mr. Desai then joined J. J. School of Applied Art to fine-tune the knowledge in photography. He passed a one-year part time course in photography and got First Class in the final Examination in the year 1982. He was much impressed by the style of teaching of Late Mr. V. S. Pradhan who was the chief instructor of the photography course conducted by J. J. School of Applied Art. Mr. Desai got inspiration from him and started an Institute namely Saiprakash Institute of Photography in the year 1983 for imparting systematic training in photography. The Institute was run by him in Dadar along with some of his friends. The Institute got a tremendous response from people mainly from middle class and lower middle class families who wanted to learn photography and make a career if possible. Since then Mr. Desai has been continuously imparting training in photography and photography education has become a passion for him. He has trained over 9000 students so far. A large number of his students opted photography as their full time career. Many among them are running photo studios in different parts of Mumbai, Maharashtra and India whereas some of them are doing part time profession in function photography. Many commercial photographers, Model portfolio makers, press photographers, cinematographers, wild life and bird photographers etc have received training from Prof. Desai.

National Institute of Photography was established in the year 1993 and Prof. Manohar Desai has been the Director since then. The Institute conducts cost effective courses for beginners and professionals and is a renowned and reputed institute in the country. NIP started conducting workshops in professional model lighting techniques recently and is receiving overwhelming response from people all over the country. There may be some reasons for that. Firstly the workshops are most cost effective. Similar workshops conducted by some other photographers call for exorbitant charges compared to NIP workshops. Secondly Prof. Desai's style of teaching makes a big difference. He is well known as an excellent tutor.  "The art of teaching" is not everybody's business. A photographer however renowned he may be may not be able to teach and explain the techniques of photography. A good performer may not necessarily be a good teacher. This is true in all fields of life and photography is no exception. And lastly the ex-students of NIP are the best references for the aspiring photographers. Mouth publicity has made a great impact on the success of NIP. NIP insists on taking the feedback from alumni before enrolling the names for any photography course.

Apart from imparting training in photography, Mr. Desai is also engaged in doing commercial and industrial photography. He is a practicing photographer. He does commercial assignments for some advertising agencies and industrial assignments for some companies. Making model portfolios has become his regular job. He has written articles on photography in newspapers like Loksatta and some other magazines. He is also invited as guest lecturer by many associations like Photographic Society of India. Though he does various assignments in photography, he is primarily interested and engaged in photography education.