KPA

That’s how Photographers from the state of Mysore came together in 1956 to form an association under the leadership of Mr.G.G. Welling, Mr. Empire Gurappa and others. On 26th August 1956 they formed an association in the name of "Mysore State Photographers Association" to take care of the needs of the photographers of the state. After the reunion of linguistic states MYSORE state was renamed as KARNATAKA and hence the association too changed its name to Karnataka and was registered under the societies act in the year 1985. After the demise of Mr. G.G. Welling, Sri P. Gopal of M/s. Parco as President and Mr. G. Ramarao as Secretary continued the good work of catering to the needs of photographers and fought against heavy rates of Sales tax and Customs duties and was successful in getting greater supply of films which was very scarce in 70's and assisted its members in getting film rolls at controlled rates.

The association met Sri Ananthkumar, the local MP, the union ministers Smt. Sushma Swaraj and Sri Venkaiah Naidu and Smt. Ramadevi, Her excellency the then Governor of Karnataka and submitted memorandums requesting to recommend the abolition of Service Tax or fix a threshold limit of Rs. 5 lakhs. With no results coming up ‘PHOTOGRAPHY BANDH' was organized throughout Karnataka. All District and Taluk associations supported the same and submitted their memorandums to local authorities. In Bangalore, KPA met Sri. S.M. Krishna, the then Hon'ble Chief Minister and submitted a memorandum requesting to recommend the Central Government to abolish the service tax on photography