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SALIM PUSHPANATH is a well known photographer whose compositions encompass subjects as varied as wildlife, landscapes and cuisine and he has published quite a few volumes of work, many of them prepared for a well known hotel group in the State, which often uses them as giveaways. Also available for public sale at most of the city bookshops are Pushpanath's photographic records that make for an attractive keepsake.
Pushpanath's volume of photographs on Kerala include compilations on the Periyar, Thiruvananthapuram and so on, but the book on Fort Cochin titled Fort Cochin, The Spice Junction, is a photographic and textual record of the place and its environs, with a text by Jayanth.
While Pushpanath generally goes in for lavish colour photography, the photographs in this volume are black and white and toned, entirely suitable to the mood the book seeks to project - of a town redolent of a colonial past. This point can be illustrated well through a digression into the history of photography.
It has been widely recorded that photography was introduced to the Indian subcontinent before the 1840's and then gained a tremendous foothold with each of the three Presidencies having their own flourishing photographic societies. The government also provided tremendous impetus to the medium and encouraged it. It has also been noted that one of the notable supporters of photography was the Archaeological Survey of India, which has left behind a treasure trove of pictorial records. Well-known Indian photographers included the likes of Bourne, Tripe and Lala Deen Dayal. It is said that there was a great demand for photographic work by souvenir hunting travellers who often took them back home in the form of albums and books.
Viewed within the context of this tradition, Pushpanath's 64-page tiny volume on Fort Cochin is one of the tradition and acquires added charm because his style here is reminiscent of those old photographic records. He not only succeeds in capturing with his lens the architecture and streetscape of this old colonial bastion but also does it in a manner, which was used with great effect in colonial times.
The book also contains some authentic old photographs and makes for an interesting comparison with Pushpanath's own studies. The photographs of Bastion Bungalow, Fort Cochin residences and the streets are particularly noteworthy as are the modern lifescape photographs of the Junkar, the fishing activities or the ice cream man etched against the background of a typical landscape.
Jayanth's text is adequately explanatory and traces the history of the place, while at the same time he places the monuments and architecture depicted in the photographs within the context of this history. The quality of the book could have been even better than it is if it had been a trifle more compactly edited both textually and photography wise. For instance a photograph of the Bolghatty Palace does not really fit in this book on Fort Cochin, despite the fact that it is a good one. One wishes for more photographs of evocative streetscapes and a few more studies of typical Fort Cochin activities.
All said and done this is quite an interesting attempt.
PRATIMA ASHER
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