The Hindu : New Delhi News : Capturing the Valley in its peaceful glory

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, May 30, 2006

New Delhi

New Delhi

Capturing the Valley in its peaceful glory

Mandira Nayar

PORTRAIT: One of the photographs by R.C. Mehta

NEW DELHI: For once it is all about "picture perfect" Kashmir. Going back to before the era of bombs and terrorism, this is an exhibition of rare photographs titled "Kashmir Views" that captures the Valley in all its peaceful glory.

From the serene Dal Lake in 1934 to the inside of the house of royals and other equally famous places in their pristine form, this is a collection of photographs from the archives of the famous Mahatta Studio in Srinagar.

A landmark of sorts, this studio on Mall Road has decided to show off its location.

Taken by R.C. Mehta -- one of the brothers who founded the studio -- these pictures have been put on display in the form of an exhibition by his grandsons who run a different "photo shop" on the Internet known as India Pictures.com. A walk through the life and times in the Valley, the collection has not only photographs of landscapes but also those that bring alive the culture of its residents.

A look at history in the years between 1934 and 1959, from the view of a photographic studio the pictures will certainly be high on nostalgia of a much simpler past gone by.

Apart from its obvious sentimental value, these pictures taken by Mehta form an integral part of visual history.

"My grandfather essentially was a studio photographer who took his camera out. We have tried to put together a whole gamut of his work ," says India Pictures.com Chief Operating Officer Dushyant Mehta.

The exhibition will open at the Visual Arts Gallery of India Habitat Centre here this coming Friday, June 2, and will be on view till June 8. The pictures will be on sale.

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