Convergence: A Panorama of Photography’s French Connections in India

India Habitat Centre, New Delhi

7 – 27 February 2023

Timing: 10 am – 8 pm

Organised within the framework of the fourth edition of Bonjour India, a pan-India festival for the arts, the last-leg of the multi-city travelling outdoor exhibition will now be on display at the India Habitat Centre!

Presented in the sprawling central courtyard of one of the most comprehensive cultural hubs in the city, the exhibition showcases the work of itinerant French photographers, signposting some of the significant photo-documentary and creative practices that networked and evolved in India from the 19th century until the 1990’s.

Discover these unseen reserves from salient museums in France – ranging from ethnographic portraits captured by the pedagogue-photographer Oscar Jean-Baptiste Mallitte, to the cityscapes of Calcutta (Kolkata) realised by the Magnum photographer, Marc Riboud along with the experimental works by modern European masters such as Denis Brihat, Paul Almasy, Edward Miller and Bernard Pierre Wolffamong others.

We acknowledge the esteemed collections from which the images are loaned: Fonds Marc Riboud / Musée National des Arts Asiatiques – Guimet (Paris), Musée du Quai Branly – Jacques Chirac (Paris), Musée Nicéphore Niépce (Chalon-sur-Saône), Maison Européenne de la Photographie (Paris), Musée Goupil (Bordeaux), Maharaja Sawai Man Singh II Museum, City Palace, Jaipur and the Alkazi Collection of Photography.

The exhibition is presented by the Ambassade de France en Inde (French Embassy in India), Institut Français en Inde (French Institute in India) and Alliance Française India, in collaboration with the Alkazi Foundation for the Arts.

Curated by Rahaab Allana, Alkazi Foundation

Scenography by The Brewhouse