Bombay Photo Studio (2003)

Concept, production, direction: Pushpamala N
Photography: JH Thakker and Vimal Thakker
India Photo Studio, Mumbai

13 sepia coloured photographs, image size 20×26 inches each, edition of 10 each.

The Bombay Photo Studio pictures were shot by Mr. JH Thakker, who took publicity photographs of the stars for the Hindi film studios in the 1950s and ‘60s, innovating with expressionist lighting. By using his early baroque style, I tried to enter into a neglected history of Indian photography, which deals with fantasy and story telling rather than realism.

 

Triptych

Portrait of a Mohammedan Woman, Portrait of a Hindoo Woman, Portrait of a Christian Woman

“…Each of the stereotypes having been fashioned in tune with its specific religious paraphernalia, together add to the universal stereotype of the woman incorporating the male vision of her. This impact is enabled further by throwing a uniform, old-fashioned studio atmosphere over the frames. The same atmosphere becomes subtly employed as a part of and a means to the merger of historical periods. Within the certain lightness of the photographic medium and the ephemeral effects of illumination and shade, the images possess a specifically sculptural effect…”
Marta Jakimovicz

Concept, production, direction: Pushpamala N
Photography: JH Thakker and Vimal Thakker
India Photo Studio, Mumbai
13 sepia coloured photographs, image size 20×26 inches each, edition of 10 each.
A set of 3 sepia- toned photographs

Click here to view more

 The Navarasa Suite (2003)

Sringara, Adbhuta, Hasya, Bhayanaka, Bhibhatsa, Karuna, Raudra, Veera, Shanta

The Navarasa Suite is a set of self portraits taken at the portrait  studio of Mr JH Thakker, based on the nine moods of Sanskrit poetics. Mr Thakker used to be a still photographer for Hindi films in the 1950s and ‘60s, and his black and white portraits of the famous stars of the era shot in his wonderful art deco studio in Mumbai are classics till today. I used his early style of expressionist lighting with elaborately created shadows and narrative elements to create the photographic tableaux…

Concept, production, direction: Pushpamala N
Photography: JH Thakker and Vimal Thakker
India Photo Studio, Mumbai
A set of 9 sepia-toned photographs

Click here to view more

Nurse

Using Mr Thakker’s 1950s lighting effects, the usually eroticised  figure of the Nurse becomes a sinister figure

sepia toned photograph
image size 20 x 26 inches
edition of 10
2003