Looking back into the past and overhauling memories in order to create an image of the time gone by is what retrospection involves. In this unique exhibition “Homai Vyarawalla: A Retrospective” we find on display, for our senses to feast on, an entire history captured through the lens of India’s first woman Press photographer. This dynamic parsi woman born in 1913 witnessed the turbulent and changing times of India as a rebel colony, and then as a nascent yet proud nation until the seventies.
This is probably the most interesting part of the exhibition because it gives the opportunity to understand how her images contributed to "a certain kind of nationalist iconography embodied in heroic figures like Nehru and Gandhi" as notes Sabeena Gadihoke, curator of the exhibition and author of the book Camera Chronicles of Homai Vyarawalla.
Her close friendship with Nehru and the admiration that she had for him combined with his use of photography as a way to build the personification of India gave us a bright and modern image of the new democracy spanning across almost twenty years. Nehru's death marks a turning point in the way she was following the political life of India. Indira Gandhi's personality, the war in Pakistan, emergency proclaimed on June 25th, 1975 all in succession managed to disillusion Homai Vyarawalla with the nation and photography.
Homai Vyarawalla: A Retrospective, National Gallery of Modern Art, Delhi, until the 31st of October.
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