The stillness is mesmerising…yet the frames have stories to tell!
A panorama of still photographs, immaculately framed and displayed, capture different moods and settings in the mystical black/white prints.
Spread over two imposing halls, an exhibition of photographs – curated by the remarkable trio of Sabeena Gadihoke, Mallika Leuzinger, Tapati Guha –Thakurta – celebrate the photography journey of twin sisters late Debalina Mazumder and Manobina Roy spanning almost 6 decades.
The exquisite exhibits are hosted in the heritage edifice of Lalit Kala Academy at Lal Baradari in Qaiserbagh area of Lucknow.
The collection of photographs under the theme of ‘Twin Sisters with Cameras’ narrates a range of subjects and genres, experiments with light and shadow to imbue their life and family.
The event has been organised by ‘Lucknow Bioscope’ in collaboration with CREA and Jadunath Bhavan, and supported by Photo South Asia, an initiative of the Murthy Nayak Foundation.
On the inaugural day on Thursday, the children of the illustrious photographers also graced the occasion. Joy Roy, Kamalini Mazumder and Tilak Shankar Mazumder shared their cherished reminiscences and poignant anecdotes of their mothers as well as their self-learnt craft.
“This is a historical place…my mother was a part of NIA Lucknow and kept pursuing photography whenever possible,” Kamalini said adding, “my (maternal) grandfather believed that his daughters must not just get into house chores and break through this male dominated society.”
In her talk, Sabeena Gadihoke said it would be wrong to term the sisters as amateur photographers since the term ‘amateur’ invariably also refers to being non-serious or inadept.
“Although, they were not professionally trained, yet their body of work is a testimony to their expertise of the craft and insight about using natural lights and settings to capture the most significant moments and poses,” she observed.
“The photographers had a certain kind of gravitas. It was a slower form of photography with just 12 exposures on camera at that time. That is the difference between now and then, and composing such posed pictures,” she averred.
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Meanwhile, the exhibition will be open to the public till Aug 12 before moving on to other cities for similar display.