Time & Tide, curated by Nathaniel Gaskell and presented by Tasveer, is an exhibition of limited edition prints by Karan Kapoor. This exhibition brings together two bodies of work made by Kapoor in the 1980s and 1990s, and focuses on people and places that have either been lost to history, or changed beyond recognition. Time & Tide is accompanied by a new book, published by Tasveer, with reproductions of the photographs and original texts by William Dalrymple and Felicity Kendal.
The first series in the exhibition presents a study of ageing Anglo-Indians, primarily from Bombay (Mumbai) and Calcutta (Kolkata), and forms one of Kapoor’s earliest personal photography projects. Drawn to the subject, both by the sense of a world removed from time and personal history—he is himself of both Indian and British descent, being the son of Shashi Kapoor and Jennifer Kendal—Kapoor began by researching the older residents of The Tollygunge Home for Anglo-Indians in Calcutta. He writes, “I was more interested in the older generation as they seemed to be the last remaining remnants of the British Raj – people who remembered the railway cantonments, the Marilyn Monroe look-a-like contest, the ‘Central Provinces’, and so on, a world long gone.”
This idea of a world no longer present or fast fading also forms a central thread in Kapoor’s second series presented here, that is comprised of photographs taken during his frequent visits to Goa, where he vacationed with family and friends at their house on Baga Beach. Taken in the 1990s, these photographs capture an older Goa: the last of ‘Portugal Goa’. Although Goan Catholics, probably the largest inheritors and key defenders of their Portuguese heritage, continue to exist in Goa today, their numbers have steadily declined over the years. Showcasing the attempt of these two communities to hold on to their unique identities, against the sweeping tides of modernity in rapidly changing times, the photographs in this exhibition document, in a certain sense, cultures in preserve. Though these communities continue to exist in different forms and fewer numbers today, Kapoor’s black and white photographs showcase a remarkable fossilised window into their world, capturing the end of an era, and as he remarks of the Anglo-Indians, “the last of a dying breed.”
Time & Tide opens in Mumbai at TARQ and will then travel across the country, including Bangalore, Kolkata, Ahmedabad and Delhi. For more information about the exhibition and schedule, visit www.tasveerarts.com/exhibitions. Signed and limited edition silver gelatin prints are available from Tasveer in editions of 12.
About the artist
Karan Kapoor is a London-based photographer of Indian and British descent. A former film actor and model, Kapoor took to photojournalism in the 1980s. Since then, he has moved on to advertising as well, and has worked on multiple high-profile campaigns for major brands. Though his roots are in photography, he has also branched out into moving images, and has shot video for some campaigns. Kapoor has been exhibited in London at the Photographers Gallery, The Commonwealth Institute, Royal Academy of Arts and the Association of Photographers. His work has been published by several media-houses and continues to be critically acclaimed by the photography industry, winning awards like the PDN Annual, American Photography, IPA, PX3, and the Black and White Spiders Cup.