Photographer Nemai Ghosh has been the quintessential Satyajit Ray biographer through his decades-long close association with the master filmmaker. Over a lifetime of work, he has built up a vast and valuable photographic archive that is now housed at DAG. To commemorate the astonishing contribution of Satyajit Ray in Indian cinema, DAG brings a selection of photographs from Nemai Ghosh’s archive, Satyajit Ray and Beyond in partnership with The Nehru Memorial & Library, New Delhi.
While justly associated primarily with photographing the films and the person of the auteur Satyajit Ray, the exhibition attempts to bring to light Nemai Ghosh’s lesser-known but equally extensive documentation of cinema, both mainstream Hindi cinema from Bombay as well as regional Bengali cinema. It presents several iconic and many never-before-seen images of actors, scenes, sets and locations during the filming of Satyajit Ray’s films and the filmmaker at work, taken over a twenty-five year period, as well as an array of images of regional films and actors. This tribute to Indian cinema attests the power of the photograph, to witness, record and tell stories.
All featured prints are on archival paper, and are part of an edition of six. Through this celebration of Nemai Ghosh’s work with cinema, DAG is pleased to showcase a section of this extensive archive, an invaluable part of India’s cinematic and photographic history.This exploration of photography forms part of Nemai Gosh’s engagement with documenting the reservoir of richly diverse Indian art.
Satyajit Ray and Beyond in partnership with The Nehru Memorial & Library, New Delhi from May 15 - 30, 2018. Open for general viewings 9:00 AM to 5:30 PM (Tuesday - Sunday).
