Baldev Duggal, one of the earliest Indian-American immigrants to the United States whose love for the lens went far beyond just creating photographs, encompassing a burning desire to empower the entire photographic community, died in New York last week.
Duggal, who hailed from Jalandhar, died in his sleep June 29, a month shy of his 79th birthday. He is survived by his three children – Susheila Kidman and husband Scott, Dave Duggal and wife Jennifer, Michael Duggal and Mollie as well as by eight grandchildren.
Duggal, who had been captivated by the power of photography since childhood when his grandfather gave him his first inexpensive camera, and had seen his first photographic success at age 15, winning a magazine cover photo contest in India, arrived in New York City in 1957.
As with many other immigrants, he had nothing more than a one-way ticket, a student visa, $200, and of course, a dream. That dream to make it big in the United States came to be realized in subsequent years when he founded Duggal Color that later came to be known as Duggal Visual Solutions in 1962, a global graphics business producing images and displays for Fortune 500 brands, prestigious museums and renowned artists around the world.
Duggal was a pioneer of New York’s photo district in the 1960s, launching his business with his revolutionary dip-and-dunk automated film processing method which is widely used till today.
In the early 1990s Duggal was the first to print a photographic-quality image large enough to wrap around a building, setting a trend now followed as a matter of course, throughout the advertising industry.
By then he had become well known in the industry, both in New York and across the country, going on to earn the respect and trust of several legendary photographers such as Bert Stern, Richard Avedon, Albert Watson, Vic Muniz, and David LaChapelle.
Although photography and the various processes related to development and printing was his passion, Duggal was an astute businessman as well. Those who worked with him say that he had a great talent for predicting future industry scenarios, and most of the time he was ahead of the curve. For example, Duggal was an early adapter of digital photography, most notably being the first photo lab-owner to expand into digital imaging with high-resolution drum scanning in the late 1970s.
During his later years Duggal was instrumental in developing the Brooklyn Navy Yard into a national capital for conservation and green manufacturing, namely with his prized venue, the Duggal Greenhouse, which he had converted from a dilapidated ship repair facility into an entertainment and eco-friendly events venue that drew the likes of AOL, Dior, Lady GaGa, Beyoncé, Nike, and also Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, during the 2016 Democratic debate just before the primary. The facility was also visited by President Barack Obama last year.
One of the things about him which his associates never fail to mention while talking about Duggal is that he always spoke of leaving the world a better place than he had found it for his children, grandchildren, and all the humankind. He fulfilled this mission in countless ways, especially during the waning years of his life.
Asked what his driving force was, he once said to an interviewer that there was a time when he was driven by money because he didn’t have any. “But today I am driven by a totally different force: I challenge my own limits. I want to reinvent myself and redefine my business, and give something back (to the society) . I really want to make a difference,” he said in a newspaper interview in 2015.
Duggal did not confine himself just to his first love – photography. A few years ago he founded Lumi Solair, a New York-based company specializing in off-grid renewable products. Duggal, who had received many awards and recognition, including Ernst and young award for entrepreneurship, wanted to foster innovation in the clean tech industry. He also helped many nonprofits and schools for children in underprivileged areas.
Besides being an entrepreneurship he was a kind soul as well. Bob Kapoor, who has worked with Duggal for more than 25 years, and is now the general manager of the company, gave an example of how Duggal touched the lives of many different people who came in touch with him.
He said that there was a housekeeper, a black woman who served Duggal for 30 years and she retired from her job some years ago because of her old age. “But till today she gets the same salary, thanks to Mr. Duggal, from the company although she does not work anymore. Mr. Duggal would invite her every year to office parties. Then there was a cleaning guy in the company who broke his leg in an accident. When Mr. Duggal announced a reward of $20,000 each for all those employees who had worked for 20 years in his company, he sent a limo to the cleaning guy’s home so he could come to office and accept the recognition and the reward personally and in front of the staff,” Kapoor recalled.
“He was a very giving, caring and philanthropic personality. Few people know that he was a very eco-friendly and environment-conscious man although he loved technology a lot. Mr. Duggal lived his life to the full. He lived an elegant life and most important, he was full of passion for anything and everything that he ever did in his life,” Kapoor said.
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