As far as I am concerned, taking photographs is a means of understanding which cannot be separated from other means of visual expression. It is a way of shouting, of freeing oneself, not of proving or asserting one?s own originality. It is a way of life.? French photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson?s unassuming words have, over the years, found meaning beyond the shackles of time for many a photographer. Cartier-Bresson?s works on India includes his highly acclaimed pictures of the last days and the funeral of Mahatma Gandhi as well as those of the partition of the subcontinent.
Around that time, in 1947 to be precise, Cartier-Bresson along with three other photographic geniuses, Robert Capa, George Rodger and David Seymour founded an international photographic cooperative, Magnum Photos. Much like Cartier-Bresson, Magnum over the decades, has become a name to reckon with globally when it comes to photographic excellence. And in all its contradictions, colour, chaos, calm, contrasting lives and landscapes, India really couldn?t have missed the eyes and the lenses of Magnum photographers.
Magnum Ke Tasveer, Magnum?s Vision of India, being held in the Capital at Gallery Point Motif, is a feast for the eyes with 56 snapshots taken over the last five decades by eight Magnum photographers, organised in collaboration with Tasveer Arts. In the words of Sophie Wright, cultural and print room director, Magnum Photos London, ?So often India?s colour and light are cited as inspiration to the photographer, but the work included here goes deeper than this surface beauty. Known for a long-term engagement with their subject matter these eight photographers…have all lived and worked in India for extended periods of time documenting its diverse and complex society.? Prolific Indian photographer Raghu Rai is the only Indian among the eight whose works are on display, while the others are Marilyn Silverstone, Bruno Barbey, Ferdinando Scianna, Steve McCurry, Warner Bischof, Abbas, and Olivia Arthur.
Iranian photographer Abbas, who has dedicated his work ?to the political and social coverage of the developing South?, explores Indian religiosity in his works that are on display. His monochromatic frames are shot primarily in the early 1990s and in 2011. Marilyn Silverstone, takes us a little back in time to the late 1950s and ?60s, giving glimpses primarily into the lives of some of the prominent Indian personalities of that era. From Satyajit Ray, standing on the terrace in a white kurta, to Indira Gandhi engrossed in work at the Indian National Congress office in 1959, long before she was Prime Minister, and from Jacqueline Kennedy?s India visit to Maharani Gayatri Devi of Jaipur, Silverstone’s lens captures little vignettes of history while it was being written. Scianna, too, has monochromatic pictures on display, which primarily take a look at the Indian life and people in all their vivid moods and diversities. One the other side of these black and white visions are splashes of rich and contrasting colours, especially visible in the works of Steve McCurry. Clicked between 1983 and 2010, McCurry?s works also put on display his very evident fascination with colour, India, and an intoxicating cocktail of the two. Bruno Barbey adds perspective and, not to mention, colour to India of the ?80s with particularly stark images of the Ganesh festival headlining his collection on display. Olivia Arthur, one of Magnum?s youngest photographers, who only joined the collective in 2008, specifically looks at the Ramnami sect, a a group of untouchables in central India whose tattoos, particularly on the faces, represent a protest against the caste system. The tattoos are actually a series of ?Ram? written in the Devanagari script and tattooed all over the face.
Raghu Rai?s works on display showcase what he does best: recording the life in India and of India as it unfolds. Shot between 2000 and 2010, Rai?s pictures provide a stark visual narrative of all things Indian and all things common, yet they stand out to be noticed. ?India is the most powerful country in terms of human expression and that?s why it is the favourite country of many photographers. We are an ancient civilisation and somehow the intensity of life is easily visible even on our streets. For photographers coming particularly from the West, India is a great visual surprise,? says Rai. Raghu Rai was nominated by Cartier-Bresson himself in 1977 to join Magnum. Rai?s exhibition in Paris in 1971 had impressed Cartier-Bresson no end, and he even told Rai that ?No one captures India like you do?. Rai, from his interactions with Cartier-Bresson recalls that the French master photographer was very much in love with India and points to his photographic work in the subcontinent as a visual testimony. ?The thing about Cartier-Bresson was that he could go to any country when it would be going through major historical changes and record it with his own gifted perspective. The other quality, which is extremely rare, was that he could just walk into any culture, no matter how foreign, and could click with an instantaneous and instinctive response,? says Rai.
Clearly, Cartier-Bresson?s love for India was shared by the later generations of Magnum photographers. The exhibition itself, while going much beyond the usual exoticised shots of India, still has an undertone of surprise, fascination, and all things East. A bit stereotypical? Well, just a little maybe, but much more than that too as they come from eight different photographers, seven of whom are foreigners. For us Indians who live the lives shown in these pictures every single day, it becomes a little difficult to appreciate the visual spectacle this country is, and at times we ourselves are. But for someone on the other side of the lens, India, more often than not is a magnum opus.