In On Photography, Susan Sontag mentions photography are valued because they’re symbolic objects and give people information. Sontag states, “Photography implies that we know about the world if we accept it as the camera records it…Nevertheless the camera’s rendering of reality must always hide more than it discloses.” Sontag is stating that photography fills in the blanks and gives people information on situations they don’t know much about. Even though pictures are used to bring awareness to spectators, photography doesn’t give the whole story to them. I took what she stated about ‘capturing reality’ and applied it them to the photographs I saw at the exhibit of Modernism on the Ganges: The Photographs of Raghubir Singh.
Around 1950s-1960s, India established their own independence from the English rule. Singh captures the post-partition of India beautifully. From photographs of everyday life such as inside a traditional home, fruit markets, typewriter factories to kite-flying festivals, the Taj Mahal, floods, and so on. Sontag may be right about not fully capturing the hardships and reality of India declaring their own independence after post-colonization merely through pictures, but as an outsider I have a clear understanding that India was embracing their culture and land to its full extent after the English rule left.
One of my favorite pictures from the exhibit was the kite-flying festival in Gujarat, India. It was a couple of people on a rooftop, and these colorful kites flying openly in the sky. Personally, I saw a symbolism between the kites flying freely and their newfound independence in India with living along with English influence rather than dominating them. The kites were the most colorful aspect of the photograph, it brought a sensation of happiness, which brings it back to the reality of India during that period of time.
I enjoyed how Singh didn’t only show the bright parts of the late 1900s in India, but also the problems they faced such as flooding and monsoon rains due to the geography and location of India. There was on picture that was showing a group of women with their dripping wet saris on top of a hill waiting for the monsoon to passby. There was another picture of a man diving straight into the flood in Ganges off this huge triangular structure. In that flood, there was multiple men swimming around like it was an outdoor pool. Singh depicted the struggles the Indian people lived and faced with natural disasters. Instead of them staying at home during a flood, they swam and jumped in it. I saw it as Singhdepicting Indian people as free-spirited and liberating.
Even though the reading has a firm stance on photographs being limited to the reality of a certain situation. Personally not knowing much about the post-colonization of India, I gained a sense of knowledge about the culture and reality of the way Indian people lived during that time period. Singh showed the world about the Indian lifestyle and people through his photographs around the beautiful country.
