Sam Tata

Sam Tata (September 30, 1911 – July 3, 2005) was a photographer and photojournalist.

Early life

Sam Bejan Tata was born in Shanghai, China, on September 30, 1911, to a mercantile Parsi family.Dessureault 1988, p. 20. He went to Shanghai Public School,McLachlan & Tata 1989, p. 27. and then studied business for two years at the University of Hong Kong. He took up photography at the age of twenty-four,Kunard, 20 November 2012. and was one of the founding members of the Shanghai Camera Club. A friend at the club, Alex Buchman, who was working as a photojournalist for the ''China Press'', inspired Tata to buy his first Leica and roam the streets for meaningful images.Dessureault 1988, p. 21. In 1939, he learned academic studio portraiture with Oscar Seepol, and he later studied with the photographers Lang Jingshan and Liu Xucang.Dessureault 1988, pp. 21–22. He became adept in his early photographs with the use of lighting and the additive techniques favoured by the pictorialists. His focus on portraiture in these years was partly dictated by the Japanese occupation of Shanghai in 1937, and Tata was not able to take up photography full-time until 1946.James 1983, p. 10.

Bombay and Henri Cartier-Bresson

In 1947, through the efforts of the Indian pictorialist Jehangir N. Unwalla, Tata's work was shown in Bombay.Dessureault 1988, p. 22. Several months later, at a show sponsored by the Bombay Art Society,Hawthorn, 29 August 2005. he met French photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson, and through his influence and mentorship, was galvanized to take up photojournalism with renewed vigour. He began to contribute to Bombay periodicals such as ''Trend'' and ''Flashlight.''Dessureault 1988, p. 23. With Cartier-Bresson, Tata documented the Indian Independence movement from 1946–1948, including the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi. In 1949, Tata returned to Shanghai, where he recorded the fall of the Kuomintang and the takeover of the city by Communist troops; for a period he was accompanied by Cartier-Bresson.Dessureault 1988, p. 24.James 1983, p. 11. Tata remained in the city until 1952, when he moved to Hong Kong. In transition, many of his early photographs were seized by the Chinese censors.Dessureault 1988, p. 25. He made a trip to Kashmir and India in 1955, and his photo-essay, "Himalyan Pilgrimage", was published by ''National Geographic'' in October 1956.Dessureault 1988, p. 26.

Montreal and later years

Tata immigrated to Canada in 1956 and settled in Montreal. He quickly found work doing stills for documentary films made at the National Film Board, and he became a photo editor for ''The Montrealer'' magazine.Dessureault 1988, p. 27. His work appeared in publications and magazines such as ''Macleans'', ''Perspectives'', ''Chatelaine'', and ''Time''.Dessureault 1988, p. 28. Sometimes on assignment, but increasingly on his own initiative, he began to amass a portfolio of Canadian literary and artistic figures, including Michel Tremblay, Leonard Cohen, Michael Laucke, Irving Layton, George Bowering, Donald Sutherland, Alice Munro, and Gilles Vigneault. Tata preferred to take pictures with a 35mm camera and use the available light in the homes of his subjects, where they would feel more at ease and their personalities be more fully evoked by posing amidst their personal possessions. In 1988, a major retrospective of his life and work, ''The Tata Era / L’Epoque Tata'' was mounted by the Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography and toured the country. He received the Canada Council's Victor Martyn Lynch-Staunton Award (1982) and was made a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts, In 1990 he was awarded the lifetime achievement award in 1990 from the Canadian Association of Professional Image Creators (CAPIC). In 1991, forty of his photographs appeared in the National Library of Canada exhibition, ''Canadian Writers'' at the National Library of Canada. Books devoted to his photography include ''Montreal'' (with Frank Lowe, 1963), ''Expo 67: Sculpture'' (1967), ''A Certain Identity: 50 Portraits'' (1983), ''Shanghai 1949: The End of an Era'' (1989), ''Portraits of Canadian Writers'' (1991), and ''India: Land of My Fathers'' (2005). Tata died July 3, 2005 at the age of 93 in Sooke, British Columbia, Canada.

On April 8, 2015, Canada Post issued a permanent domestic stamp with a photograph entitled ''Angels, Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day'', taken in Montreal by Tata in 1962.

Selected solo exhibitions

*''Portraits of Canadian Writers'', National Library of Canada, Ottawa, 1991
*''The Tata Era/ L’Époque Tata'', The Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography, Ottawa, 1988
*''Shanghai 1949: Photographs by Sam Tata'', National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, 1981Dessureault 1988, p. 94.
*''A Certain Identity'', Centaur Gallery of Photography, Montreal, 1974
*''Sam Tata: 30 Photographs'', Perception Gallery, Montreal, 1971
*''Photographs of Asia'', George Eastman House, Rochester, New York, 1958
*''Photographs by Sam Tata'', Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, 1957

Selected group exhibitions

*''It’s All Happening So Fast: A Counter-History of the Modern Canadian Environment'', Art Museum of the University of Toronto, 2017
*''Photography in Canada'', National Gallery of Canada, 2017
*''Tendances actuelles au Québec: la photographie'', Musée d'art contemporain, Montreal, 1979
*''La Fête'', Rencontres internationales de la photograhie, Arles, France, 1978Dessureault 1988, p. 93.
*''The Magic World of Childhood'', National Film Board Photo Gallery, Ottawa, 1971
*''Three Canadian Photographers: Guenter Karkutt — John Flanders — Sam Tata'', National Film Board Photo Gallery, Ottawa, 1970
*''Photography at Mid-Century'', George Eastman House, Rochester, New York, 1959
*''Seventh All-India Exhibition of Photography, Bombay, India, 1948
*''Two-person show with Lang Jingshan'', Shanghai, 1946

Collections

*National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa
*Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography, Ottawa
*National Portrait Gallery, London
*Winnipeg Art Gallery
*University of Toronto

Notes

References

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External links

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* Archives of Sam Tat
(Sam Tata fonds, R11097)
are held at Library and Archives Canada.
* A collection of photographs of Canadian writers by Sam Tat
(Portraits of Canadian writers collection, R11839)
are held at Library and Archives Canada

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tata, Sam
1911 births
2005 deaths
Artists from Shanghai
Canadian photographers
Photography in China
Photography in India
Street photographers
Parsi people
Members of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts
Chinese photographers
Chinese emigrants to Canada