CITY OF PHOTOS

City of Photos explores the bizarre and entirely Indian phenomenon of photo studios and the reasons for their incredible popularity. Posing against various backgrounds from the scenic (waterfalls and flowers) to the surprising (images of the burning twin towers and train crashes) the people seem to stand before the lens as proof of their life and existence in defiance almost of the circumstances. Reality in these studios can be retouched and made better, images beautified and altered. If an engagement is called off, the other party is simply erased from the images. The illusion becomes real and the real becomes the illusion.

The photos capture the aspirations, memories and stories of the people; reality is recorded as they would like it to have been. Photographs span over a hundred years in the Kolkata Studios revealing the privileged past, democratised present and unlimited future of Indian photographic portraits. A truly fascinating glimpse emerges of individuals, social conventions and popular culture amongst the backdrops of the studio.