Visions of India: from the colonial to the contemporary opens on Friday 17 December at the Monash Gallery of Art in Melbourne.


Samuel BOURNE Taj Mahal, Agra  c. 1860 albumen print, one of the photographs in the Visions of India exhibition at the Monash Gallery of Art.

The exhibition features works from the Museum of Art & Photography (MAP) in Bengaluru, which holds one of the most celebrated photographic collections in India. It is the first major survey of Indian photography in Australia and shows images recorded at the height of British colonial rule.

Over the century-and-a-half since it was introduced in India, photography has lived many lives, yet its commercial and artistic trajectories remain deeply influenced by its colonial origin. The exhibition divided across three broad periods — the colonial, postcolonial, and contemporary — will allow viewers to see photography in the subcontinent as not just a product of political, cultural and material transformations but also as a space where centuries-old biases are reflected, countered and contested.

The exhibition will be on view at MGA until 20 March 2022. Click here for more information.