India Through an American Lens

A Celebration of Independence) The Philadelphia Museum ofArt celebrates India)s Golden Jubilee with a photo exhibition opening in New Delhi later this year.

he Western fascination with India has manifested itself in a myriad ways in the postcolonial era.

Numerous writers, artists and thinkers have sought to dwell in her ancient heritage-the arts, literature and spiritualism. Through words or images they have tried to capture a glimpse of the country's

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1947-97 immensity, variety and complexity.

On the occasion of the nation's Golden Jubilee, the Alfred Stieglitz Center of Photography at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, in association with Aperture, the reputed publishing house and photography foundation, has put together a traveling exhibition of photographs, titled

ROSALIND SOLOMON, Family near the Hoogley River during Festival, Calcutta, 1982

It is a beautiful country) my country.

Never has nature manifested herself with such abandoned pride) never has the earth borne the traces ofpassionate love with such splendor. Caressed) repudiated) and loved in turn) my country stands: lushly verdant) heartbreakingly arid) and awesomely majestic. Many-hued is my country) and many-hued are my people.

Creamy white) honey skinned) ebony black) and golden brown are my people) and the earth is alive with echoesof their many moods. It echoestheir gaiety) their sorrow;their anger; their restraint. Lush green vines with somber brown) awesome white towers above the rush of blue waters. It is a beautiful country) my country.

-SALom

NARAJ."!G,1984

"India: A Celebration of Independence, 1947-1997." From October, the exhibition will tour several U.S. cities, including Chicago and Richmond, Virginia, and London, U.K. The American leg of the exhibition is sponsored by the Ford Motor Company. At the same time, an identical exhibition, sponsored by Mahindra Ford India Ltd., Eastman Kodak and USIS, will open at the National Gallery of Modern Art in New Delhi and also travel to Mumbai, Calcutta and Chennai.

As the main sponsor of the photo exhibition in India, John Parker, president and managing director, Mahindra Ford, is keen to involve the company "with India, her cultural heritage and her progress into the next millennium." Says he: "The 50th year of independence is of special significance to everyone connected with India and we have tried to express this by being part of significant cultural activities that are a tribute to India and her people. The photo exhi-

THOMAS L. KELLY, India Gate, New Delhi, February 1995

India is a nation of extremes) its often violent political and ethnic sentiments-easily charged and never far from erupting-playoff the countr/s sombe~ thoughtful and contemplative moods. The spectrum of extravagant colorsviewed with crisp light in a village or city are contrasted with bleached landscapes and the pallo~ dust and impermanence of urban sprawl.

India)s disparate millions move one foot cautiously into the modern world) keeping the other firmly stuck in a variety ofpasts.

-ROBERT

NICKELSBERG

bition is Mahindra Ford's way of commemorating India's 50th anniversary."

The exhibition is accompanied by a large-format book published by Aperture featuring exquisite black-andwhite duotone and four-color reproductions of the works of 23 renowned photographers, both Indian and foreign, taken during the past five decades. They include Henri Cartier-Bresson, Mary Ellen Mark, Steve McCurry, Robert Nickelsberg and Sebastiao Salgado, Sunil Janah, Raghu Rai, Dayanita Singh, Sanjeev Saith, Ketaki Sheth and Prashant Panjiar.

On these pages SPAN presents a selection of images ofIndia by American photographers. In the words of Michael Hoffman, executive director of Aperture and adjunct curator of the Alfred Stieglitz Center, the images of the exhibition "honor a people who give so liberally of their life and culture, who make an offering to something greaterto work, to family, to a sense of the larger universal order."

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MITCH EPSTEIN, Qutab MinGl; New Delhi, 1981

ROBERT NICKELSBERG, Crowded political rally, Jaipur, Rajasthan, 1991

vve can be proud of thefact that for a long series of centuries beset with vicissitudes of stupendous proportions, crowded with things that are incongruous and facts that are irrelevant, India still keeps alive the inner principle of her own civilization against the o/clonicfury of contradictions and the gravitational pull of the dust.

-RABINDRANATH TAGORE, 1912

MARY ELLEN MARK, Street Acrobats, Bombay, 1981