Through the looking glass: Mumbai’s Dharavi in new photo exhibit

New Delhi: Three compelling contemporary photographers have woven together an exhibition that showcases ways of witnessing what goes on in the corners of the mind, in dejected spaces as well as in the privacy of a room. Ronny Sen, Pallon Daruwalla and Gareth Kingdon are set to show their work titled ‘In Secrecy’ at a brand new gallery space The Photo Room a part of art connoisseur and theatre veteran Ebrahim Alkazi’s Art Heritage gallery in the national capital opening 19 August. [caption id=“attachment_62160” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Dharavi, the ever-changing muse. Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images”]  [/caption] Gareth Kingdon, documentary photographer from South Wales, attempts a kind of social commentary through his photographs. In his upcoming ‘Hidden Cities’, Kingdon looks at positive aspects of living in one of the world’s largest slum community of Dharavi, Mumbai. Kingdon documents the slum with his 360 degree digital photographs stitched together from 20 individual frames shot over a period of time ranging from 45 minutes to 3 hours. The Welsh photographer says he turned to Dharavi after capturing another large slum, Kiberia in Nigeria, a couple of years ago. “Kingdon’s expanded image format images challenges stereotypical images and notions of overcrowding, illness, sanitation and marginalised communities found in a slum,” says Amal Allana, Director Art Heritage Gallery. “His images lend a sense of grandeur and magnanimity,” she adds. Commenting on Ronny’s pieces, Allana says, “Spaces and people merge, forming a narrative of Ronny’s psychological explorations, intellectual juxtapositions and sexual impulses.” Ronny Sen, an independent, well-published photographer based in Kolkata, in his collection of photographs, ‘A tale of Three Rooms’, ponders on the people he encounters in his own room over a period of time. Daruwalla on the other hand attempts to alter the surface of known spaces by duplicating them or morphing them to create an entirely different composition that forces the viewers to alter their perceptions of space, scale and order. He prints the photographs on Epson Photo Canvas Sheets and says he “challenges the viewer to see these as works of fine art.” PTI