Eminent social photographer Rajender Shaw passes away

Hyderabad: Eminent social photographer, documentary-maker and former director of Centre for Development Communications, Rajender Shaw (64) passed away on May 23. He is survived by his wife Prof. Padmaja Shaw, senior faculty at Journalism Department of Osmania University and a son, Abhishek Shaw. Rajender went to Lucknow for making a documentary on NDDB (National Dairy Development Board) in the third week on May. After a day-long shooting, he returned to his room in Comfort Inn, where he was staying. Next day, his assistant Rohit went to the hotel only to find his guide dead. "He might have suffered from a heart attack while he was asleep. He could not alert even the hotel staff. We did not take his body to any hospital since he had already breathed his last," Rohit told The Hans India. "We got a call from Lucknow about our father and immediately rushed there. We brought the body back and performed the last rites on Saturday," said Abhishek. "He had a hectic shoot on that day. All he wanted to do was to capture what he had materialised on that day. He shared his happiness with me and said that his documentary would be on course. In a way, he died as a happy man with his work," Rohit said. A simple and noble man, Rajendra Shaw was born in Kolkata in 1949. After finishing school and college there, he went on to study at the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) in Pune and graduated from there in 1975. Later, he migrated to Hyderabad on professional pursuits. He was the director of Centre for Development Communications for over two decades, travelling extensively all over India working with social sector organizations, providing photo and video documentation and capacity building training in photo documentation. He won awards from the Association for Business Communicators of India for his work with the National Dairy Development Board. Over the past three decades his photos have been published and exhibited in India and UK.