Farhat Basir Khan

Early life and education

Professor Farhat Basir Khan was born on 2 August 1957 in Aligarh and completed his postgraduate degree at Aligarh Muslim University in 1978. He started his career as a photojournalist, but soon distinguished himself also as an industrial and advertising photographer and audio-visual producer. Khan managed to make his name amongst the leading photographers of the country because of his unique style and methods. Professor Khan always believed in the power of education and hence decided to enter the field of academics. His interest in education led him to become a teacher of Photography at Aligarh Muslim University.

Academic career

Following industry exposure, Prof. Khan joined the AJK, Mass Communication Research Centre, where he heads the Photography, Multimedia & Audiovisual sections and holds the Maulana Abdul Kalam Azad Chair. He further served as the Director of the Academy for Photographic Excellence; a Jindal Photo Initiative.

An activist practitioner and a teacher hold the distinction of having taught at an M.A level programme for over three decades now. Prof. Khan has completed several national and international media projects and consultancies and distinguished himself as a visiting faculty and jury member both in India and abroad. His contribution to photography and media studies in India, both as an academician as well as an industry professional, has been widely acknowledged. Have been rigorously involved in designing new Media Courses and setting up facilities at Educational Institutes throughout the country and also contributing to the New education policy in the country.

Professional Work and Achievements

Having made a stellar contribution to the teaching, learning, practice, policy and pedagogy of the discipline, he has made a pioneering contribution to the field of media and communication especially photography and visual communication. Led productions, research, advocacy campaigns for accessible solutions in healthcare and the rights of minority women for equity and vocational training He champions the use of communication for development and has also curated several exhibitions on Mental Health, Photography for sensitization of youth for democratic participation, preventing violence against women.

Prof. Khan has been felicitated globally, He has a unique distinction of creating the 50th year WHO and also the UNICEF commemorative AV and being instrumental in bringing the prestigious Sony World Photography award to India, for the first time beating all 60 global universities across the world at Cannes, and put India resoundingly and firmly on the global photography map. Prof Khan has also served several times on the world’s largest broadcasting convention jury on content creation, management and delivery at the IBC in Netherlands, Amsterdam. He has served as a member of many prestigious juries such as International CMS Vatavaran Film Festival, Delhi; Fuji Film Super Six, Film Photography and Animation Festivals at IIT Kanpur and Delhi.

He has worked tirelessly for the popularisation of scientific temper in India he is also on the board of editor of Journal of Scientific Temper of CSIR. Served on the Multistakeholder advisory group of the India Internet Governance initiative where he has supported and led proposals for youth dialogues in academic institutions of excellence. Expanded the national and cyber security dialogue to include the end user perspective especially from marginalised communities, minorities and underrepresented stakeholder groups.

Prof. Khan designed the course structure for the Career Planning Centre, Women’s College, AMU, with emphasis on imparting skill and training in photography in 1996 and also developed the course of PG Diploma in Photography at the AJK, Mass Communication Research Centre that got U.G.C. approval in 2007 before making an important contribution in chalking out the course curriculum of the integrated MA Mass Communication at Doon University in 2009.

Prof. Khan is an innovator, thinker and much-admired teacher who has created new walking formats for symposiums and has revealed a new paradigm for the reading and understanding of photography as a folk art.

Contribution to Cinema, Media and Academics

Professor Khan is the senior faculty member of AJ Kidwai Mass Communication and Research Centre, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi. During his career as an academician he has taught several prominent names of the industry such as Shah Rukh Khan, Roshan Abbas, Barkha Dutt, Kabir Khan, Loveleen Tandan, Aseem Mishra and Saurabh Narang. He has been rigorously involved in designing new Media Courses & setting up facilities at Educational Institutes and universities throughout the country. He also contributed under the National education policy in 1993, and was the first to design & develop a three-year undergraduate degree programme in Still-Photography and audio video production which was adopted by the UGC for nation-wise assistance. He also assisted the Department of Vocationalisation of Education for NCERT for their first photography vocational course at senior school level in the mid-eighties. He is credited with the invention of several new formats like walk-thorough symposiums and multimedia installations. His curatorial project Votography integrates street theatre, installation, graphics and photography.

Commercial Work

An active commercial photographer, Prof. Khan is famous for his campaigns for Grey, Lintas, Leo Burnett, Atlas, Oberoi Maidens, Avis, Grasim and Delhi Police. He has contributed to various international projects such as the One World programme for UNICEF delegates on Unspooling the Documentary Process and for institutes such as MIT, Russian Film School and Harvard Business School. Prof. Khan was chosen to make an Audio Visual for Commemoration of 50 years for both UNICEF and WHO from amongst all the Professional Photographers around the world.

Sony World Photography Awards, Cannes

His most recent international achievement has been to bring to India, the prestigious World Photography Award – Student Focus at the Palais des Festival in Cannes, defeating finalists from all the other continents. It was won by the team he was leading, consisting of two of his students at AJK Mass Communication Research Centre, Jamia in 2009. In 2010, the team led by him were the Asia finalists. The award brought the focus of World Photography on India and AJK Mass Communication and Research Centre.

Research on the Female Gaze

Based on his extensive study of curated work of various female photographers, Prof. Khan attributes the female gaze to anything that's been photographed by a woman which according to him is actually breaking the stereotypical view created by “male-constructed” photographs that have shown women in a certain light throughout the history of visual arts. In January 2017, Khan curated an exhibition titled 'Feminography' at the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts with female gaze as the central theme.

Campaign for Soldiers "Chitthi Aayi Hai"

In an attempt to encourage and inculcate letter-writing habit among youngsters, Prof. Khan conceived and curated a multimedia project #ChitthiAayiHai, where people photographed themselves and got it printed on a postcard, which they posted with a personalised message to their loved ones and soldiers. Prof. Khan motivated visitors to send postcards expressing gratitude to our young brave soldiers in consonance with the Prime Minister Narendra Modi's call for #Sandesh2Soldiers. In addition to inculcating letter-writing habit and extending support to the soldiers, Chitthi Aayi Hai served as a unique experimental initiative towards the co-creation of art through mass participation wherein an ordinary photograph on the postcard simultaneously took the form of art as well as a personal memoir.

Documenting Reality: Metaphors of Life

Prof. Khan delivered a lecture in Lucknow at the Lalit Kala Academy, talking about the importance of sound effects, the direction of light, and relation with characters in order to take a good picture. He used the examples from works of Vincent Van Gogh, Andrey Tarkovsky and Alfred Hitchcock to explain the importance of image and its perception in relation with other mediums.