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Synopsis “A Viewfinder’s Journey” is a twofold metaphor, that traces such a route. It recounts and documents Praful C. Patel’s journey as a zealous photographer, discovering sights and sites that are telling, either to capture a poignant moment or an historical instant-or for sheer piquant delight of the happening or maybe even for merely the graphic content. There are not many tools that express the philosophy of their user so clearly as the viewfinder of a camera. Any photographer will aequiesce the regard and respect that this little pane calls. “A Viewfinder’s Journey” is Praful C. Patel’s repertoire of images that span the amplitude of his career. It is a photo composition in series, an interesting montage that actually landmarks his lifework as photographer, spread over a little more than half a century. It is a visual anthology that illustrates not just chronologically the progress of his photographing journey but it also provides through black-and white a multitude of hues that in turn express a manner of seeing and the enthusiasm behind the entire activity. Above all, it offers a slice of social history, images of a changing topography, glimpses of protean lifestyles and urban methods. While Praful Patel is on his journey, he pauses, and rightly so. Because at 75 years, it becomes naturally imperative to reminisce, to muse and to commemorate. One has known him with and since the institution of the entre for Photography as an Art-Form, at the National Centre for the Performing Arts in 1986, where he works as Senior Assistant Director, with characteristic energy and a preserving sense intentioned, photographic essay. In the progression of his imagery an interesting journey is traced, that begins more than five decades ago and includes varied assignment he has undertaken. Praful Patel has worked with a dynamism that has stayed with him throughout since 1945 when he first took up photography. He began by working at Windsor Studio with 10”x12” glass plate negatives and progressed on to the present day digital paradigm. What is most interesting is this viewfinder’s trek over an important terrain that features the development of photography in the country.