Victor George, born in the year 1955, was an immensely talented photographer from Kerala in India. It was his brother who introduced him to photography. It began as a hobby but later it developed into a passion and a very serious interest. In 1981 Victor joined the Malayala Manorama. From 1985 to 1990 he worked in their Delhi bureau. His pictures of the 1986 National Games first won him recognition. The captivating shots of the plump, animated mother of swimmers Anita and Kavita Sood cheering them from the gallery during the women`s 400 metre freestyle brought Victor a clutch of awards and instant recognition, as did his frame of the Indian relay team dropping the baton in a disastrous finish at the South Asian Federation Games, Kolkata in 1989. From 1990, Victor was chief photographer of the Manorama, Kottayam. Readers knew that if a picture was remarkable in its depth, unusual in its theme and told a story in black and white, chances were that it would carry Victor`s by-line. Victor was never satisfied with an ordinary angle and he always went one step ahead to make his picture different.
Victor`s smile and understanding manner instantly put people at ease when making a portrait. He was persuasive without making the subject realise that he or she was being effortlessly manipulated into the pose the camera required. His gallery of portraits of poets, artists and authors for the literary magazine Bhashaposhini is a tribute to this unfailing ability to strike a chord with his subject. After an extended stint in Kottayam, Victor began to chafe at the confines of news photography and the monotony of covering local events. The best of his later work in his nature photography, particularly the thought-provoking shots of the ravaged environment and man`s destructive greed. His `rain book` became an obsession with Victor. He travelled to Kanyakumari and Kovalam and the Shankhumukham seashore of Thiruvananthapuram, waiting for days on end to capture the onset of the monsoon.
Unfortunately, the talented and passionate photographer dies in the year 2002 while taking pictures of landslides in Kerela. Then he was working as Chief Photo Editor with a Malayalam Newspaper. George was reported missing from the landslide spot of venniyani in the idukki district. According to his colleagues, he was last seen clicking the devastation caused by the landslide. A second landlside took place precisely at this moment and he was not seen afterwards.