Where Three Dreams Cross: 150 Years of Photography from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh

Whitechapel Gallery

photograph by Ketaki Sheth


This landmark exhibition gives an inside view of how modern India, Pakistan and Bangladesh have been shaped through the lens of their photographers.From the days when the first Indian-run photographic studios were established in the 19th century, this exhibition tells the story of photography’s development in the subcontinent with over 400 works that have been brought together for the first time. It encompasses social realism and reportage of key political moments in the 1940s, amateur snaps from the 1960s and street photography from the 1970s. Contemporary photographs reveal the reality of everyday life, while the recent digitalisation of image making accelerates its cross-over with fashion and film.
The exhibition is arranged over five themes with works selected from the last 150 years. The Portrait shows the evolution of self-representation; The Family explores close bonds and relationships through early hand-painted and contemporary portraits; The Body Politic charts political moments, movements and campaigns; The Performance focuses on the golden age of Bollywood, circus performers and artistic practices that engage with masquerade; while The Street looks at the built environment, social documentary and street photography. Over 70 photographers including Pushpamala N., Rashid Rana, Dayanita Singh, Raghubir Singh, Umrao Singh Sher-Gil, Rashid Talukder, Ayesha Vellani and Munem Wasif are presented in the show, with works drawn from important collections of historic photography, including the influential Alkazi Collection, Delhi and the Drik Archive, Dhaka. They join many previously unseen images from private family archives, galleries, individuals and works by leading contemporary artists.



As a City & Guilds photography student you can get a year's membership and free entry to this exhibition for £20.

Points of View: Capturing the 19th Century in Photographs

Yesterday I went to this fabulous exhibition free at the British Library (until 7th March).

Many people know that 'photography', as it later came to be called, was announced simultaneously both sides of the Channel in 1839. In France Louis-Jacques Mandé Daguerre introduced the daguerrotype and in Britain William Henry Fox Talbot introduced his photogenic drawing. (Maybe because this is a British exhibition, there's much more about Mister Talbot than about Monsieur Daguerre.) What I hadn't known is that Talbot was motivated to discover a way of capturing images because he was a frustrated artist. He had tried to draw a view of Lake Como using an earlier kind of camera, the camera lucida, and was unhappy with the results, so came home determined to get decent snaps on his next holiday. The photo of his shown below I think shows his artistic bent. I love it and bought two postcards of it.

Pattern of seeds of dandelion? or milkweed?

Photographic engraving, mid 1850s. 7.7 x 10.7 cm.

Originally printed from a copper plate

I'm personally interested in photography as art. The curator of this exhibition points out that from the beginning of photography (originally called 'sciagraphy') there was a debate as to whether it's a mere recording tool or a method of producing artistic works. There are still people who think that photography, if an art at all, is an inferior one. In my view, it is very easy to produce a photograph but very difficult to produce one that qualifies as a work of art. But I do believe strongly that it's possible - I've written about photography masters I admire in previous blogs.

For anyone unfamiliar with the original chemical processes involved in capturing, developing and printing photographs using film, this exhibition makes it very easy to grasp with a little film called The Calotype process and samples of equipment used. People like us using this method were called 'amateur calotypists'! On display is an absolutely huge old book containing 3,000 calotypes, mostly portraits. And there's a large daguerrotype which I loved, a picture of Moscow lightly covered in snow taken circa 1841; it has crisp, clear clarity/resolution. In 1855 the 'wet collodian negative' superceded both the calotype and daguerrotype.

Talbot was the first photographer to have his photographs used to illustrate a book. It had the wonderful title The pencil of nature and there's a copy in the exhibition.

A problem with photographs back in the 1850s was that they faded. Talbot tried inventing a way of making prints permanent - photogravure. He wasn't too successful, however, David Octavius Hill and Robert Adamson were. And the exhibition is full of old unfaded photos.

At the end of the 19th century a group of photographers interested in photography as art established a brotherhood - the Brotherhood of the Linked Ring - I didn't discover why it was so named but did wonder about creating a 21st century sisterhood.

The exhibition more or less ends with an exhibition of the rise of Kodak cameras. As early as 1888 George Eastman's slogan was "You press the button, we do the rest." The developing and printing processes were commercialised making it easy for anyone who could afford a Kodak camera to create images on photographic film without having to sniff a chemical.

If I could have improved the exhibition at all I would have liked there to have been a darkroom and the opportunity of sneaking a look at (and getting a whiff of) someone at work - but perhaps that would have breached health and safety regulations! I'm nostalgic for the few attempts I made in darkrooms in the 80's. Also, I love the sound that cameras make as the shutter opens and closes - I'd be curious to know what old-fashioned cameras sound like in action. I suspect that our esteemed tutor could oblige on this one.

To end on a positive note, there's a lovely photograph of Trafalgar Square taken in 1907; less positively, the photographer's unknown.... There are a couple of photographs by well-known photographers - Steiglitz (A dreary day, New York, circa 1897) and Steichen (from 1st volume Camera Work, 1903).

aspirations

Am wondering if anyone can help me take better pictures. For example, the one below is a detail of Tower Bridge. The photographer must have been quite a long way away, so how did he (David Springfield) get such a clear image?



The next one, by Frederick Evans, is not out of focus but has this wonderful - I like it anyway - hazy effect - anyone know how to achieve this? Vaseline?

This one by Josef Sudek - how did he get the figures so clear?

And this one by Karel Brassai - well, did he have to get the couple to pose, I wonder. Which makes me wonder if we mightn't get together and be models for each other sometime - not in the classroom, but like this one, in a pub, or somewhere with atmosphere and interesting things like mirrors. If we took time to each decide what kind of photo we wanted and who we wanted to be in it - I won't be insulted if you don't want old wrinkly, especially if you want a snoggy picture - we could get really organized and do something constructive as a team.

Do tell me if you think I'm being too ambitious.

alternative urban landscapes

Delete Libraries in Urban Settings, replace with Reflected Urban Landscapes

This is half of a photo I half like from earlier landscape project. I think what I've learnt from both projects - portraits and landscapes - is if don't like the photos , don't do.

Peckham Plaza

Should have cropped more from the bottom of this one - done in haste - another lesson to learn!

alternative urban landscapes

Reflecting on my attempt at a landscape project I'm not a happy woman. I only like one of my six photos and even that's not a favourite. It seems difficult for me to create on demand, it's like being back at school where getting the thing done takes over from being creative.

The only 'library project' photo I half like is the one of Peckham Leisure Centre reflected in Peckham Library and I was thinking how much I like my photos of reflected buildings. I know the concept's not original but anyway my pictures are my pictures and no two people's pictures - presumably - are ever the same! What's going to happen when we have to make a statement of intent and follow through on a project? DK. A set of fairly boring but meets-the-criteria pictures!

What I should have done was gone back to the places I took photos I like and retake in the name of PROJECT. I didn't, but if I had...

Canary Wharf

Cannon Street

Mary Axe Street

Shad Thames

Gt Turnstile Street

Three Libraries - three colour photos

Peckham Library, opened 1999, with Peckham Leisure Centre behind.

Swiss Cottage Library, opened 1964, with unidentified, shapely building behind.

Dulwich Library, opened 24 November 1897, with local bank behind.

Landscape project final day

"The love of learning, the sequestered nooks, And all the sweet serenity of books."

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

For my project Libraries in Urban Landscapes I decided that I didn't have time to visit any more libraries so would present two photos of each library.

I went back to Swiss Cottage to get more photos today - it's very close to where I work - the weather was worse than last week - greyer - though not actually raining. The man in the photo above looked really warm and cosy inside.

My other three photographs are less landscape-like I think - each features the library and only one other building, is taken more close-up. I'm also going to present them in colour as I think this suits two of them better than b & w.