The exhibitions, totalling close to 200 richly captured photographs between them, were opened at the National Gallery of Modern Art by noted photographer Raghu Rai last evening.
While the first display titled "Through a Lens, By a Mirror" by Sooni Taraporevala, carefully captures the everyday lifestyle of the esoteric Parsis, the second "A Certain Grace" by Ketaki Sheth, delicately documents the quotidian living of the Sidi tribe, Indians of African descent who are spread in western and southern parts of India.
"For me, photography has always been a form of magic. Photographs freezes time and survive death. My grandmother died, so did my grandfather and granduncle and a host of aunts and uncles who took with them an entire world. But not before I had captured them on celluloid. Their photographs still give me some measure of, perhaps, childish comfort," Taraporevala said.
So, she has photographed people as they go about their daily lives, successfully narrating emotions of her subjects as they make conversation, attend family functions, at home or in the streets of Mumbai, a city which is considered a Parsi bastion.
While Taraporevala's mix of colour and black-and-white photographs absorbs the finer nuances of the community and their legendary sartorial legacy, Sheth's 65 monochromes impressively reveal the lives of the Sidis, who over the past many centuries came to India, but have now culturally adapted the language, cuisine and attires of the land.
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