The photo exhibition is called ‘Die Stadt. Vom Werden und Vergehen & The Changing Hyderabad'. Organised by Goethe-Zentrum, the exhibition juxtaposes the works of German photographic agency Ostkreuz with the works of Bhagyanagar Photo Art Club. Inside the Western block of Salar Jung Museum, the photographs are on display inside two huge halls on the second floor.
We suggest you begin with the photographs clicked by the German photographers. There is an elemental starkness about the photographs. The colours in the photographs are incidental as the frames move from cities to cities capturing the myriad moods of urban life. There is an arresting image of parked yellow buses. Is this a city we know? The caption shows that it has been clicked in Lagos. There is a clutch of photographs titled ‘Mona Lisas of the Suburbs'. It shows young women in ordinary clothes with the barest hint of smile. Each of them has a story which we can imagine. In contrast, the photograph of Chernobyl by Andrej Krementschouk is a narrative within a tight frame. The huge monochrome image shows a city shrouded in fog and mist. It is as if the trees, buildings and the remnants of the nuclear reactor have disappeared into thin air. Another series of dramatic images are from Palestine that shows the aftermath of war in gut-wrenching starkness inside the home of Abu Halima.
Step out and step into the hall showing the photo-collection from Hyderabad and you are in a colourful world. Forget the drabness of incisive monochromatic narrative, you are in the midst of plenty.
A world of joy that is familiar yet unknown. Some of the images are ironic, like the vagabond man with a jaunty cap, greasy shirt held together with safety pins and rows of colourful pens in his pocket. There are images of bonalu and no exhibition of Hyderabad is complete without a grab at Charminar from multiple angles. The frames are tighter, there are multiple narratives and each frame captures a slice of life you thought never existed. If the photographs by the German photographers play with light and show a simple story, the Hyderabad photographs are a play of colours, symmetry and forms.
What: The Changing Hyderabad
Where: Salar Jung Museum
Date: Till October 23
