NEXT week sees the opening of one of the most extensive photographic exhibitions ever to have been mounted about the subcontinent.

The Whitechapel Gallery in London’s Aldgate East hosts Where Three Dreams Cross: 150 years of Photography from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Opening next Thursday (21), the exhibition will present unique portraits of life from the three countries during some of the most tumultuous periods of their existence.
 

Work from more than 70 artists from the three countries will be displayed and more than 300 images will form the focus of the exhibition that runs until April 11.
 

Sunil Gupta, exhibtion curator, said: "It's a very exciting moment to be thinking about photography in this part of world. The digital era has ushered in the region's 'box brownie' moment, unleashing a flood of private images, of the kind one rarely saw before as photojournalism and photography salon image making appeared to be the only options for public consumption. 

"The process of researching this exhibition has partly led to my own relocation to India so that I can continue to contribute to the growth of the medium there. This exhibition is just the beginning, we have yet to see what photographers from that region are capable of producing and claiming as their own."
 

Hammad Nasa, co-curator, said: “‘Where Three Dreams Cross is a landmark exhibition in so many different ways. It is, to my mind, the first attempt to explore the historic development of the lens-based image in the subcontinent, where photography has a history almost as long as Europe. Secondly, by cutting across India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, the exhibition brings together historical archives and contemporary works which have never been seen in  conjunction with each other.

"Together they produce a much richer story (or stories) than a nation-specific exhibition could have done. Thirdly, the exhibition has been a mammoth voyage of discovery. By focusing on images rather than checking only the 'big names', the breadth of practice on show – from photojournalism to NGO activism to international art-world superstars – is vast. And lastly, while Indian art and photography has enjoyed considerable international interest and been the subject of large survey exhibitions throughout the world, the work coming out of Bangladesh and Pakistan is comparatively less well-known. This exhibition will hopefully mark the beginning of a new interest in the region not usually in the limelight for its cultural output.’

 

As the gallery’s media partner for this exhibition, Eastern Eye will be organising offers and promotions to this event.

*Where Three Dreams Cross; 150 years of photo-graphy from India, Pakis-tan and Bangladesh, opens next Thursday (21). £8 Nearest tube: Aldgate East 

 

 

Image: Boys cooling off on a summer day in Bombay

TS Satyan
1970

Photograph