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{{EngvarB|date=August 2014}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2021}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Homai Vyarawalla
| image = Photo of Homai Vyarawalla.jpg
| birth_date = {{birth date|df=yes|1913|12|9}}
| birth_place = [[Navsari]], [[Bombay state]], [[British India]]
| death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|2012|1|15|1913|12|9}}
| death_place=[[Vadodara]], Gujarat, India
| education = [[Sir J. J. School of Art]]
| occupation = [[Photojournalist]]
| spouse = [[Manekshaw Vyarawala]] (d. 1969)
| parents =
| children = Farouq<ref>{{cite news|title=India's first woman photojournalist, a chronicler of history|url=http://www.indianexpress.com/news/indias-first-woman-photojournalist-a-c.../900173/|work=[[The Indian Express]]|date=16 January 2012|access-date=9 December 2017}}</ref>
| nationality = Indian
}}

'''Homai Vyarawalla''' (9 December 1913 – 15 January 2012), commonly known by her pseudonym '''Dalda 13''', was [[India]]'s first woman [[Photojournalism|photojournalist]].<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/29/world/asia/homai-vyarawalla-india-photojournalist-dies-at-99.html|title=Homai Vyarawalla, Indian Photojournalist, Dies at 99|last=Pandya|first=Haresh|date=29 January 2012|work=[[The New York Times]]|access-date=16 September 2017|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://feminisminindia.com/2017/03/24/homai-vyarawalla-essay/|title=Homai Vyarawalla: India's First Female Photojournalist {{!}} #IndianWomenInHistory|date=2017-03-24|work=Feminism in India|access-date=2017-09-17|language=en-US}}</ref> She began work in the late 1930s and retired in the early 1970s. In 2011, she was awarded [[Padma Vibhushan]], the second highest civilian award of the [[India|Republic of India]].<ref name="te">{{cite news|url=http://www.telegraphindia.com/1110123/jsp/opinion/story_13478946.jsp|title=An iconic observer – The curious life and times of Homai Vyarawalla|date=23 January 2011 |work=The Telegraph}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/vadodara/Homai-gets-Padma-Vibhushan/articleshow/7362865.cms|title=Homai gets Padma Vibhushan - Times of India|work=The Times of India|access-date=2017-12-11}}</ref> She was amongst the first women in India to join a mainstream publication when she joined ''[[The Illustrated Weekly of India]]''.<ref name="Byerly2016">{{cite book|author=Carolyn M. Byerly|title=The Palgrave International Handbook of Women and Journalism|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mAJfCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA391|access-date=5 June 2018|date=12 January 2016|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan UK|isbn=978-1-137-27324-6|pages=391–}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/magazines/panache/google-doodle-honours-indias-first-woman-photojournalist-homai-vyarawalla/articleshow/61994344.cms | title=Google Doodle honours India's first woman photojournalist Homai Vyarawalla | work=[[The Economic Times]] | date=9 December 2017 | access-date=5 June 2018}}</ref>

==Early life and education==
Homai Vyarawalla was born on 9 December 1913<ref>{{cite web|url=http://m.timesofindia.com/PDATOI/articleshow/6276844.cms |title=The Times of India on Mobile |publisher=M.timesofindia.com |date=9 December 1913 |access-date=16 January 2012}}</ref> to a [[Parsi]] [[Zoroastrian]] family in [[Navsari]], Gujarat.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-42349710 |title=Homai Vyarawalla: The trailblazer who became India's first woman photojournalist | date= 30 December 2017 | access-date=28 April 2021}}</ref> Vyarawalla spent her childhood moving from place to place with her father's travelling theatre company.<ref name="Pandya 2012">{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/29/world/asia/homai-vyarawalla-india-photojournalist-dies-at-98.html|title=Homai Vyarawalla, Indian Photojournalist, Dies at 98|last=Pandya|first=Haresh|date=2012|work=The New York Times|access-date=2017-09-16|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}}</ref> After moving to Bombay, Homai Vyarawalla studied at [[Bombay University]] and the [[Sir J. J. School of Art]].<ref name="toi">{{cite news|url=http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-01-25/vadodara/28352445_1_homai-vyarawalla-first-woman-photojournalist-photo-division|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110811115724/http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-01-25/vadodara/28352445_1_homai-vyarawalla-first-woman-photojournalist-photo-division|url-status=dead|archive-date=11 August 2011|work=[[The Times of India]]|title=Homai gets Padma Vibhushan|date=25 January 2011}}</ref>

==Personal life==
Vyarawalla was married to Manekshaw Jamshetji Vyarawalla, an accountant and photographer for the [[The Times of India|Times of India]].<ref name="Pandya 2012"/> In 1970, a year after her husband's death, she gave up photography as she did not wish to work with the new generation paparazzi culture.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/24/arts/design/candid-photos-by-homai-vyarawalla-at-rubin-museum.html|title='Candid,' Photos by Homai Vyarawalla, at Rubin Museum|last=Cotter|first=Holland|date=2012-08-23|work=The New York Times|access-date=2017-12-09|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/29/world/asia/homai-vyarawalla-india-photojournalist-dies-at-98.html|title=Homai Vyarawalla, Indian Photojournalist, Dies at 98|last=Pandya|first=Haresh|date=2012|work=The New York Times|access-date=2017-12-09|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}}</ref>

Homai Vyarawalla then moved to [[Pilani]], [[Rajasthan]], with her only son, Farouq, who taught at [[Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani|BITS Pilani]]. She returned to [[Vadodara|Vadodara (formerly Baroda)]] with her son in 1982.<ref name="indiatoday.intoday.in">{{Cite news|url=http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/homai-vyarawalla-first-lady-of-the-lens/1/168962.html|title=Homai Vyarawalla: First lady of the lens|access-date=2017-09-16}}</ref> After her son's death from cancer in 1989, she lived alone in a small apartment in [[Vadodara|Baroda]] and spent her time [[gardening]].<ref>{{Cite book|title=India in focus : camera chronicles of Homai Vyarawalla|last=Sabeena.|first=Gadihoke|date=2010|publisher=Mapin Publishing in association with Parzor Foundation|others=Vyarawalla, Homai.|isbn=978-1935677079|location=New Delhi|oclc=868304226}}</ref>

==Career==

Vyarawalla started her career in the 1930s. At the onset of [[World War II]], she started working on assignments for Mumbai-based ''[[The Illustrated Weekly of India]]'' magazine which published many of her most admired black-and-white images.<ref name="ec">{{cite news|url=http://www.rediff.com/news/slide-show/slide-show-1-second-part-of-the-interview-with-homai-vyrawalla/20110303.htm|title=Meet India's first lady photographer Homai Vyarawalla|date=3 March 2011|work=Rediff.com}}</ref> In the early years of her career, since Vyarawalla was unknown and a woman, her photographs were published under her husband's name.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=http://time.com/50318/homai-vyarawalla-indias-first-female-photojournalist/|title=Homai Vyarawalla: India's First Female Photojournalist|last=Gadihoke|first=Sabeena|website=Time|access-date=2017-09-16}}</ref> Vyarawalla stated that because women were not taken seriously as journalists she was able to take high-quality, revealing photographs of her subjects without interference:<ref name="MonikaBaker">{{cite AV media|date=1995|last=Baker|first=Monika|title=Dalda 13: A Portrait of Homai Vyarawalla|work=Black Arts Video Project (BAVP) |publisher=[[Arts Council England|Arts Council of England]]|url=http://artsonfilm.wmin.ac.uk/filmsuk.php?a=view&recid=408|oclc=1022751616|minutes=1:10}}</ref>{{quote|People were rather orthodox. They didn't want the women folk to be moving around all over the place and when they saw me in a sari with the camera, hanging around, they thought it was a very strange sight. And in the beginning they thought I was just fooling around with the camera, just showing off or something and they didn't take me seriously. But that was to my advantage because I could go to the sensitive areas also to take pictures and nobody will stop me. So I was able to take the best of pictures and get them published. It was only when the pictures got published that people realized how seriously I was working for the place.|Homai Vyarawalla in ''Dalda 13: A Portrait of Homai Vyarawalla'' (1995)}}

Eventually her photography received notice at the national level, particularly after moving to Delhi in 1942 to join the British Information Services. As a press photographer, she recorded many political and national leaders in the period leading up to independence, including [[Mahatma Gandhi|Mohandas Gandhi]], [[Jawaharlal Nehru]], [[Muhammad Ali Jinnah]], [[Indira Gandhi]] and the [[Nehru-Gandhi family]].<ref name=":0" />

[[File:The Dalai Lama in ceremonial dress enters India through a high mountain pass, Sikkim, 1956.jpg|thumb|The Dalai Lama in ceremonial dress enters India through [[Nathu La]] in Sikkim on 24 November 1956, photographed by Homai Vyarawalla.]]
In 1956, she photographed for [[Life Magazine]] the [[14th Dalai Lama]] when he entered Sikkim in India for the first time via the [[Nathu La]].<ref>Haresh Pandya, [https://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/29/world/asia/homai-vyarawalla-india-photojournalist-dies-at-98.html Homai Vyarawalla, Pioneering Indian Photojournalist, Dies at 98], NYT, 28 January 2012</ref>

Most of her photographs were published under the pseudonym "Dalda 13″. The reasons behind her choice of this name were that her birth year was 1913, she met her husband at the age of 13 and her first car's number plate read "DLD 13″.<ref name="indiatoday.intoday.in"/>

In 1970, shortly after her husband's death, Homai Vyarawalla decided to give up photography, lamenting "bad behaviour" of the new generation of photographers.<ref>Haresh Pandya, [https://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/29/world/asia/homai-vyarawalla-india-photojournalist-dies-at-98.html "Homai Vyarawalla, Pioneering Indian Photojournalist, Dies at 98"], ''[[New York Times]]'', 29 January 2012.</ref> She did not take a single photograph in the last 40-plus years of her life. When asked why she quit photography while at the peak of her profession, she said <blockquote> "It was not worth it anymore. We had rules for photographers; we even followed a dress code. We treated each other with respect, like colleagues. But then, things changed for the worst. They were only interested in making a few quick bucks; I didn't want to be part of the crowd anymore."<ref name="ec"/></blockquote>Later in life, Vyarawalla gave her collection of photographs to the Delhi-based Alkazi Foundation for the Arts and, in 2010, in collaboration with the [[National Gallery of Modern Art]], [[Mumbai]] (NGMA), the foundation presented a retrospective of her work.<ref name="ec" /> In 1998, she was honoured with the [[Chameli Devi Jain Award for Outstanding Women Mediaperson]].<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.thehindu.com/features/friday-review/anubhavasancharangal-vanitha-madhyama-pravarthakarude-ormakal-review/article6636186.ece|title=The way of the news, in her words|last=Pillai|first=Meena T.|work=The Hindu|date=27 November 2014|access-date=3 May 2019}}</ref>

Google honoured Vyarawalla on the 104th anniversary of her birth with a doodle, "First Lady of the Lens".<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://techobserver.in/article/biography/google-doodle-celebrates-indias-first-woman-photojournalist-homai-vyarawalla|title=Homai Vyarawalla: Google Doodle celebrates India's first female photojournalist|last=Kalam|first=M|date=2017-12-09|work=TechObserver|access-date=2017-12-08|language=en-GB}}</ref>

== Awards ==
She was awarded [[Padma Vibhushan|Padma vibhusan]], India's second highest civilian honour in 2011.

==Death==
In January 2012, Vyarawalla fell from her bed and fractured a hip bone. Her neighbours helped her reach a hospital where she developed breathing complications. She had been suffering from interstitial lung disease which resulted in her death on 15 January 2012.<ref name="The Times of India">{{cite news|title=India's first woman photojournalist dead|url=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Indias-first-woman-photojournalist-dead/articleshow/11505336.cms|date=16 January 2012|newspaper=The Times of India|access-date=29 September 2020}}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}
{{refbegin}}
;Bibliography
* {{citation|last=Gadihoke|first=Sabeena|title=India in Focus: Camera Chronicles of Homai Vyarawalla|year=2006|publisher=Parzor/Mapin Publishing|location=New Delhi/Ahmedabad|url=http://www.mapinpub.in/bookinfo.php?id=77 |isbn=978-81-89995-46-1}}
;Magazine articles
* {{citation|last=Gaur|first=June|title=Lens view: Homai Vyarawalla|year=2004|edition=Online|publication-date=20 June 2004|location=New Delhi|url=http://www.hindu.com/mag/2004/06/20/stories/2004062000090100.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041120170655/http://www.hindu.com/mag/2004/06/20/stories/2004062000090100.htm|url-status=dead|work=[[The Hindu]]|archive-date=2004-11-20}}
* {{citation|last=Bunsha|first=Dionne|title=History, in black and white|periodical=Frontline|volume=22|issue=18|year=2005|publication-date=13 August 2005|url=http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/fl2217/stories/20050826000206500.htm|display-authors=etal|url-status=usurped|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071209234403/http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/fl2217/stories/20050826000206500.htm|archive-date=9 December 2007}}
* {{citation|last=Sundaram|first=V.|title=Homai Vyarawalla: India's First Woman Photo Journalist|year=2006|publication-date=3 March 2007|url=http://www.boloji.com/people/04019.htm|location=New York|publisher=Boloji.com|access-date=12 November 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101213114320/http://boloji.com/people/04019.htm|archive-date=13 December 2010|url-status=dead}}
{{refend}}

==External links==
* [https://www.npr.org/blogs/pictureshow/2012/01/20/145484804/indias-first-female-photojournalist-captured-a-nation-in-transition?sc=tw&cc=shareIndia's First Female Photojournalist Captured A Nation In Transition] at [[NPR]]
* [http://www.universetale.com/homai-vyarawalla-the-first-indian-woman-photojournalist/ Homai vyarawalla]

{{Padma Vibhushan Awards}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vyarawalla, Homai}}
[[Category:Indian photojournalists]]
[[Category:Indian women photographers]]
[[Category:1913 births]]
[[Category:2012 deaths]]
[[Category:Parsi people]]
[[Category:People from Navsari district]]
[[Category:University of Mumbai alumni]]
[[Category:Sir Jamsetjee Jeejebhoy School of Art alumni]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Padma Vibhushan in arts]]
[[Category:Indian women journalists]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian journalists]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian women writers]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian photographers]]
[[Category:Women artists from Gujarat]]
[[Category:Women writers from Gujarat]]
[[Category:Journalists from Gujarat]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian women artists]]
[[Category:Photographers from Gujarat]]
[[Category:20th-century women photographers]]

Homai Vyarawalla - Revision history

->GreenC bot at 17:58, 24 October 2021