Hemant Pithwa left the Sir J J School of Arts to take up photography. To me, as a painter, this should have amounted to blasphemy but in a curious way, I did understand. Because Hemant did not turn to photography for his livelihood but as his raison d'etre.
As a child, Hemant accompanied his father who was a professional
photographer on several occasions. He grew up within an environment
surrounded by conventional and 
orthodox views about photography.
These he has successfully challenged and from the debris a new
and fruitful relationship to the image has sprouted. His brief
training in paintings has helped him understand the visual experience
as few of his contemporaries have. He uses his camera as a pallette
and his film as a colour box. His refusal to surrender his aristic
capabilities has opened up avenues of experimentation for himself
and for those who dare to follow in his footstep.
Being a perfectionist Hemant acknowledges the limits of his medium but being an innovator, he seeks to challenge those limits.
Professor Prabhakar Kolte