Jyoti Bhatt, was born in 1934, Diploma and Post-Diploma Specialisation (Painting and Graphics), M.S.University, Baroda, 1950-56; studied at the Academia de Bello Arti, Naples (Italy), 1961-62; Pratt Institute, New York, 1964-66; held several one-man shows in India and abroad, 1963-72; executed several major murals for various private and public institutions including the Parliament House, New Delhi, won several awards; National Awards including Gold Plaque, Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi 1957; All India Graphics At Exhibition, New Delhi, 1969; Bombay Art Society (Annual), 1954-1963 Kalidasa Art Exhibition, 1959-61; gold Medal, Third International Graphics Art Biennale, Florence, 1972; International Niken Photography Contest, Japan, 1975; works represented in several national and international Museums, including the Museum of Modern Art, New York, Smithsonian Institution, Washington.At present an Assistant Professor (Painting), Faculty of Fine Arts, MS University, Baroda and lives there. STATEMENT "It is not the kind of photography I'd like to do per se, but somebody should be doing it and there are not enough of them. I thought that not much would be lost if I didn't paint. But as a photographer, I could do a little more for my country then I could as a painter". Instead of using photography as a tool of creative expression, Jyotti Bhatt uses it for documentation and presentation - content takes predominance over form. "I used the camera to replace my sketchbook. It brought certain objectivity and it was quicker. But since the 70's I have concentrated on documenting the living art in rural homes that was rapidly vanishing because of modern, consumerist life styles". It all started in 1967, when Jyotti Bhatt was asked to take photographs to accompany a Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan Seminar in Mumbai on the folk art of Gujarat. Travelling to villages and tribal areas, he was introduced to wall painting in homes, temples and havelis, embroidery and bead work, tattoo marks on body and more, which stirred a deep admiration in him - and worry. Many of these crafts were dying out or getting corrupted and he saw it as vital to record them before they got completely obliterated. "Women who were ivory jewellery now avoid it for fear of being recognised as "backward". Rangolis which have been a part of religious ritual, have been replaced with plastic rangoli stickers or are considered too lowly a task for the mistress of the house and delegated to the servants. Mercury coated sunglasses with rainbow hues and pink moulded plastic slippers can be found among tribals in the remotest forests". Accompanied by like-minded sculptor friend, Raghav Kaneria, totally self-financed, began the laborious, joyful task of documenting these vanishing arts. "I would like to go further in pressing these arts, but I stop at photography". Kaneria and I have sometimes been questioned about the wisdom of having deserted our original discipline of graphics and sculpture for photography. Is it not a come down to give up art for photographic documentation? Yet, the joy we experience on our trips is not to be lightly dismissed. We learn so much about our people, discover remarkable half forgotten crafts. Our efforts to preserve these frozen moments of time is reward enough". Jyoti Bhatt's mission as a painter and a graphic artist is to preserve and to seek inspiration from the fast disappearing folk art traditions of rural India. Since the Seventies, Bhatt, a member of the Group 1890, has been inspired by the colourful stylized motifs of cross-stitched embroidery from his native Saurashtra (in Gujarat), Rangoli motifs of birds, animals, the sun and the moon, impressions of hands and feet as well as the use of traditional calligraphic ideograms. Bhatt has used all these motifs and yet, broken tradition. He has, instead, created a new visual vocabulary of contemporary abstract design. Bhatt is recognized as one of India's major authorities on folk designs. A talented photographer, he has recently published a book of photographs on the traditional art and designs of rural India.