The Hindu : New Delhi News : Thirty years of politics, personalities and culture

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Feb 08, 2008
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

New Delhi

New Delhi

Thirty years of politics, personalities and culture

Collaging memories: A collection of photographs by photographer Ram Rahman

After 20 long years, noted photographer Ram Rahman is showcasing his diverse and thought-provoking photographs at an exhibition in Lalit Kala Akademi here.

“Bioscope: Scenes From an Eventful Life” displays over 200 images, mostly in black and white, of the changing times of the past three decades.

“The photographic works of Ram fall predominantly into two categories -- portraits and urban landscapes. Of the portraits, both posed and simultaneous, surely the more prominent are those of artists, socialites and politicians. This is not surprising as Ram was raised within a milieu where culture and politics mixed freely in the drawing rooms of New Delhi,” says curator Peter Nagy.

Pointing out that Ram’s camera has come to acknowledge a particular image of India’s cities, especially Delhi, Peter Nagy says the shutterbug has a special interest in the symbols of politics.

“The strange (but not surreal) confluence of people, architecture, signage and activity that one finds in urban India fits easily into Ram’s viewfinder, while his compositional style savours the flattering, foreshortening and collapsing of perspectives that happen readily in black and white print.”

According to Ram Rahman, contemporary Indian photography in its current avatar is a child of its earlier history: “For many years, photojournalism was not only the genre where a professional was able to earn a living, it was a platform for showcasing works to a very wide audience. In the first half of the last century there was a fairly widespread pictorial tradition where photographers with artistic ambitions found a home. After Independence, the new industries provided a base for a developing industrial and advertising photography scene. But never through all those years was photography afforded a place in the nascent art gallery scene.”

Pointing out that the opening up of the Indian economy in the past decade has had an impact on photography as a profession, Ram says cameras and equipment were allowed entry and the previous lack of access to equipment vanished. There was shift towards digital imaging.

Ram’s father Habib Rahman had designed the Rabindra Bhavan Gallery in 1961 where his photo exhibition is on view now up to February 16.

Madhur Tankha

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

New Delhi