Picture Message

Devoid of crowd and bordered with lush green boulevards,Chandni Chowk in the 1860s presented a different picture.

To give foreign visitors during the Commonwealth Games a glimpse of the history of the Capital,an upcoming exhibition is all set to profile Delhi of the past

Devoid of crowd and bordered with lush green boulevards,Chandni Chowk in the 1860s presented a different picture altogether from its present avatar. Its empty streets were the object of focus of British photographer Samuel Bourne,who gave it permanence in his albumen print. Years later,the image will be one of the over hundred frames that will be on display at the National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA) in the exhibition Historic Delhi Early Explorations of the Camera,1860-1950,that will open on October 1,to coincide with Commonwealth Games.

The visitors will be interested to see the Delhi of the past,traces of which can be matched to the present, says Rahaab Allana,curator,Alkazi Foundation for the Arts. During the last six months he has carefully sifted through the Alkazi collection to shortlist images for the exhibition. These cover everything from the monuments to life in the city. The history of photography in Delhi is also partly due to the coming of early artists and painters who travelled here.

Photography can be considered a continuation of those forms of visualisation. The medium received patronage not only from the elite rulers and professional practitioners who set up studios,but also from the British administration,who used it to document and survey the entire country, adds Allana.

Spanning over 90 years,the images will be divided into four thematic sections. The first,Monumental Delhi will focus on architectural heritage and include a panoramic view of Delhi of 1858. In this series there is a particularly interesting frame of the Jama Masjid taken by Bourne in the 1860s. Post Mutiny Delhi will comprise,among others,Robert Tytlers portrait of Bahadur Shah Zafar after the Mughal ruler was dethroned,while in the section Last Decades of National Movement Jawaharlal Nehru and Maulana Azad are captured standing outside the Rashtrapati Bhavan. In another image one gets a glimpse of the 1953 Republic day parade. The section Three Durbars will feature the Delhi durbar of 1877,1903 and 1911.

E Brooks photographs the Begum of Bhopal at the 1911 Durbar.

Looking at an image of gymnasts at the Durbar of 1903,Allana points out that its photographer,Raja Deen Dayal,was one of the most important court photographers in the 19th century. He was with the Nizam of Hyderabad and later established his studio in Mumbai, says Allana,as he gets back to penning historical details,that will be printed on the plaques alongside the archival photographs in the exhibition. To give the viewers a broader perspective,there are maps of the Capital: juxtaposed with a map of the present,is a vintage print of 1857.

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The exhibition will take place at NGMA from October 1 to November 7

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