Modernism on the Ganges: Raghubir Singh Photographs

Modernism on the Ganges: Raghubir Singh Photographs
  • Closed
July 21, 2018 to October 21, 2018

About

One of India's most visionary and celebrated pioneers in colour photography, Raghubir Singh (1942–1999) was a prolific photographer whose creative style revealed the dramatic palette of India’s streets, places and peoples through a distinct lens. Tracing the full trajectory of his career from the late 1960s to his last unpublished projects of the late 1990s, this exhibition showcases the iconic depictions of Indian life and culture in vivid colour.

With India as his lifelong subject, Singh’s artistic vision was at the intersection of East and West; where Western modernism blended with traditional South Asian modes of seeing and representing the world. Using a handheld camera and slide film, Singh’s approach to composition, subject, framing, and lighting, coupled with his embrace of colour presented a unique Indian style of modernist photography that was, as he put it, "on the Ganges side of modernism."

The exhibition is organized by The Metropolitan Museum of Art with the cooperation of Succession Raghubir Singh.

Authored by: Kait Sykes

Authored by: Kait Sykes