Some of Assam’s most remarkable cultural pioneers remain surprisingly absent from popular memory. Muktanath Bordoloi, the first Assamese professional photographer and one of the earliest to establish an art studio in the state, was one such extraordinary figure. A painter, photographer, playwright, actor and art director, Bordoloi was a true multidisciplinary artist. After completing his fine arts education at the Government College of Art in Calcutta, he returned to Assam and founded Pearl Art Studio in Dibrugarh in the late 1920s.

 During the Second World War, the studio became a popular gathering place for American GIs. Bordoloi also served as the official photographer of the Assam Light Horse Infantry and documented the Battles of Kohima and Imphal, leaving behind a valuable visual record of a defining period in history. His camera also captured life beyond the battlefield. He documented the devastation caused by the 1950 Assam earthquake, the erosion of parts of Dibrugarh by the Brahmaputra, the scattering of Mahatma Gandhi’s ashes at Sadiya, and visits by prominent dignitaries to the former Lakhimpur district before and after Independence.

Yet photography was only one part of his remarkable creative life. Bordoloi was also a pioneering painter. Two of his works, Opium Eaters (1926) and Sati Joymoti, are preserved at the Assam State Museum in Guwahati. Art critic Mausumi Kandali has highlighted his pioneering use of oil, Western perspective, chiaroscuro and illusionistic techniques in Assamese art.

What makes Muktanath Bordoloi truly remarkable is the breadth of his contribution. He did not simply witness Assam's transformation; he documented it, painted it and participated in its cultural life.

Today, rediscovering his work is an opportunity to reclaim an important chapter of Assam's artistic and photographic history and to remember a pioneer whose lens and brush preserved moments that might otherwise have been lost to time.