Mastering the lens
An edition of Mastering the lens (2012)
before and after Cartier-Bresson in Pondicherry
By Rahaab Allana,Shilpi Goswani
Publish Date
2012
Publisher
Mapin Pub. in association with the Alkazi Collection of Photography,Grantha Corp.
Language
eng
Pages
83
Description:
This publication emanates from an exhibition by the same title, displayed for the first time at the Alliance Francaise de Delhi. It is an attempt to trace the development of photography and the other allied visual arts in Pondicherry spanning the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Drawn exclusively from The Alkazi Collection of Photography, at the core of this initiative is the unpublished album by renowned photographer Henri CartierBresson, co-founder of Magnum Photos, who visited the Sri Aurobindo Ashram in April 1950. He took the last pictures of Sri Aurobindo Ghose in the company of his spiritual companion, 'the Mother'. In addition, he meticulously penned his observations almost daily, creating a meta-text around the images, which presents a biographical and anecdotal supplement for his photographic endeavour.