A Way into India: 0000 - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0714842117 ISBN 13: 9780714842110

Publisher: Phaidon Press, 2002

Synopsis

India presents the photographer with a great challenge: the visual bombardment, the dazzling colours and the flux of people make it hard to decide where to direct the lens. Raghubir Singh (1942-1999) found a unique solution. Travelling around the country in hired Ambassadors - that most quintessentially Indian of cars - he framed his images through the vehicles' windows, and the 120 photographs in this volume depict street life from Delhi to Tamil Nadu and Kolkata.

About this title

Review:

"The last project of one of India's finest documentary photographers, this is a testament to Singh's love affair with the sights, sounds and colours of India, but also with the Ambassador car, whose windows provide a vista onto the country as Singh travelled the byways of his homeland."―Waterstone's Book Quarterly

"Raghubir Singh, who died in 1999, has been hailed by many as India's greatest photographer. This book represents his last great project - to document the Ambassador car, continuously in production in India since 1957."―Amateur Photographer

"If you're into judging a book by its cover, then you can't go wrong with this one... The results are fabulous. We see India close-up - not through Western eyes but through the eyes of someone who knows, and loves, his country... Our tour with Singh shows us India as it really is, from a viewpoint among the people. A lovely and refreshing book."―Travel Photography

Synopsis:

Raghubir Singh (1942-1999) was considered one of the finest contemporary photographers. Born in Rajasthan, India, his work is in the permanent collections of a number of major museums, including the Art Institute of Chicago, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. "A Way into India" is Singh's last photographic project and is a testament to his love affair with sights, sounds and colours of his homeland, but also with one of its most unexpected icons - the Ambassador car. Continuously in production in Indian since 1957, the Ambassador is everywhere to be seen, in all possible guises, from delivery van to diplomatic limousine, and has become something quintessentially Indian. Travelling back and forth across the country, Raghubir Singh reveals India through windows of the Ambassador. Amongst the bustle of the towns and the majesty of the countryside there are rotting cars and pristine new ones being used as taxis and poultry vans. Temples and tourists, monsoon rains, paddy fields, tea plantations and elephants are dramatically framed by the Ambassador's distinctive curves.

The old and the new sit side by side as Singh and the Ambassador show us a way into India.

About this edition

• Publisher: Phaidon Press
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0714842117
• ISBN 13: 9780714842110
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 128