Photographer, Dayanita Singh, captures the magnificent works of the veteran architect, Bal Krishna Doshi, in a book, Portrait of a House.By Uma Nair
In 2017, when Dayanita Singh won the PhotoBook Of The Year prize in Paris, the American fine art photographer, Mitch Epstein, said, “Dayanita Singh has extended the concept of what a book might be with Museum Bhavan that explore an Indian motif from printing presses to the administrative archives. Her work is a sophisticated merger of east and west sensibilities and celebrates the democratic possibilities of the offset multiple.”
Last month, Dayanita launched a delightful series of photographs on Pritzker winning architect, Bal Krishna Doshi, in an epic book titled, Portrait of a House. Shot in Ahmedabad in his own den, as it is across three houses designed by Doshi, represents a journey that nestles between spaces, stories, and conversations about the photographs themselves.
The photographs in the book is an odyssey of sensorial emotions, as it unravels an evolving narrative of photography. She doesn’t get into humongous tombs that look like white elephants on a coffee table; she prefers erudite editions, compact, and exemplifying the adage, ‘small is beautiful.’
In an interview with Kriti Saraswat Satpathy, she expresses, “Something about the houses Doshi built (Kamala House, Maneesha House, and Tejal House) that have always drawn me back in time and the realisation is that it is not just the architecture, but a space where the thought of people live, love, and grow in. I, somehow, feel a strong connection to these houses, where relationships are nurtured; there is warmth, ease, and lights created its magic.”
In the sophisticated merger of architectural and human sensibilities, she celebrates multiple possibilities of the new beginning. Here, Doshi and Dayanita explore new forms and subjects of nooks, passageways around the three houses with Doshi’s family, creating a syntax of spirited punctuation.
When Dayanita captures subjects, such as hands, the congregating of feminine aura, the simple acts of reverie, and languor in a set of staircase, she delves into the balance between what is private and what is elusively public.
The small size of the book with satin-smooth pages, and the design by the legendary, Rukminee Guha Thakurta, create a symphony of quietude. It represents dulcet glimpses of photography as a way of cataloguing the work and collective experiences between two artists, who have collaborated to create a seminal journey.
While the architectural images are a steal, what stands apart are the portraits of the women together. Rare beauty is the peahen who is the pet of the house. Dayanita captured her in a moment of naturality, her presence being a darwinian blessing as stands on a marble top table more than 70 years old, yet another image has her listening to Doshi in conversation. These images make us realise that Dayanita is a rare being of sheer depth and sensitivity of purpose. Man and nature both co-exist in a domestic environment as the minutes flow like the currents of a river.
This book invites the human gaze as a handcrafted object, made in manufacture as a work of art. The insignia of the individual is paramount because it fosters intellectual engagement and encourages the physical exploration of its pages. Rukminee is a designer of pedigree; her design dictates are pristine in terms of image association and summation. The opening pages of mathematical squares unravel the architect’s draught board as well as Dayanita’s precision and cutting edge tightness as an editor, who is critical of her own standardisation. For lovers of books, this is a catalyst for wiping away pandemic blues.