Sooni Taraporevala’s exhibition at NGMA is an attempt to present the Parsi culture to the world. She shared details with Iknoor Kaur
There is very little spoken about the Parsi culture and even lesser is known to people. However, according to Sooni Taraporevala, Parsis are India’s best kept secret.
“It has been my experience, that outside Maharashtra and Gujarat very few people know of our existence. We have been part of India’s fabric since 936 AD and our contribution has been far out of proportion to our numerical insignificance,” says the photographer
Out of her passion for her culture Sooni has come up with an exhibition depicting the Parsi community, from 1977 till date. The idea behind her exhibition, Through a lens, by a Mirror-The Parsis, displayed at the National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA) is an attempt to bring out facts about the Parsi community to the rest of India.
She explains how the name for the exhibition came about. She thanks her curator for the same. “I have to thank my curator and critic Nancy Adajania for this title. She used it for a review she wrote of my work and I asked her if I could use it for the title of this show. It’s perfect because it’s the Parsis seen through the lens of a camera, and a mirror is used as a reference to my own reflection, as I am a Parsi myself.”
Sooni feels that the parsi culture is still very alive. “The culture is alive as the photos demonstrate. Parsi culture is very relevant as we are a unique minority following the world’s oldest monotheistic religion — Zoroastrianism,” she says.
The photographs show the various eras of Parsi culture and how it has evolved through the years. Sooni has captured the richness of the culture through her lens. Thus she says, “I don’t need to revive Parsi culture — it has not gone anywhere for it to be revived.”