THIRTY eight year-old Diwan Manna has done Chandigarh proud by bagging several awards for photography. Lalit Kala Academy’s National Award for photography recently given to Diwan Manna is the second honour for him in a single year. Last year, he had won the AIFACS award. These awards have come to him for the work done in Europe during 1993-95.
Born in 1958 at Bareta in Mansa district of Punjab, Diwan graduated in Fine Arts from the Chandigarh College of Art in 1982. Since then, he has been actively engaged in multi-media art projects, using painting, theatre, dance, architecture and handicrafts as the primary elements. Diwan’s camera brings into focus the tragic consequences of social tensions and conflicts.
“I try to come to terms with the insidious and unrecognized forms of brutalisation in contemporary life”, he explains. “My endeavour is to make the invisible visible. I am not interested in merely presenting images of the destruction of human goodness, courage and beauty; I also try to underline the unrealized sources of tenderness, fortitude and courage lying deep within us.”
