Must See: Women in Indian Photography exhibition in Mumbai

Women have acted as a muse to artists from times immemorial. Innumerable works on women have adorned the walls of galleries and museum. Vacheron and Tasveer are showcasing women too, but in a different light. Subjects & Spaces, Women in Indian Photography, showcases the portrayal of women in Indian photography from the 1850s to the 1960s.

Nathaniel Gaskell, creative director of Tasveer says, “It struck us that there was a huge absence of women being photographed in early Indian photography. In the early days of the medium, women were simply less visible for sociocultural reasons, and this is then reflected in the photographs from this time. We then began researching the subject and realised it was a rich, and very under-explored area of photographic history in the country.”

The theme of the exhibition focuses on the portrayal of women in Indian photography, during the colonial period. The subject has been approached through an examination of the ‘spaces’ in which women occupied as a means to communicate social status, identity and historical position — indoors, outdoors, collective, performative and abstract spaces.

The show brings together women of diverse and contrasting backgrounds to reflect on historical trajectories on two matters: one, regarding the position and role of women in colonial India and the lack of any uniformity in it, and two, concerning the varied nuances of the practice of photography itself. Uniting these two angles is the overarching thematic of ‘space’, which deliberately embeds these feminine sitters in carefully selected enclosures and provides the critical context to their visualised positions.

When & Where
Oct 5th
11 am - 7 pm at Saffronart, Prabhadevi