Susner (Madhya Pradesh): In the era of smartphones, traditional photo studios have completely vanished. For the first time, photo studios were completely absent from the Shri Ram Navami fair in Susner.
These studios, once a defining feature of the fair, have been completely overshadowed by the rising prominence of smartphone photography.
From 2000 to 2015, six to seven photo studios from Susner, Nalkheda, Ujjain, Jhalawar and Patan regularly set up shops at the fair. Visitors would don traditional attire specifically to have family portraits taken.
The last two studios appeared at the 2019 fair before the COVID-19 pandemic caused a two-year hiatus. Now, as the fair resumed after six years, not a single photography studio was present.
"People used to stand in line to get their photos clicked. Now mobile cameras have become so good that people don't need us," said Shivnarayan Chauhan, a veteran photographer. "The cost of setting up a shop isn't even recovered which is why we don’t set up shops in fair anymore."
Local elders said that while today's generation takes countless digital photos, they lack the emotional connection that traditional studio portraits once provided. As visitors now prefer selfies, social media posts and digital memories, another cultural tradition quietly fades away.
