In her photographs, Sooni Taraporevala has portrayed the myriad faces of the Parsi community, the interiors of their houses, their rituals and their religious spaces. The old world spaces have a weighty atmosphere pervaded by a nostalgic mood. The people are photographed in their familiar environs sans any choreography. In this image she chronicles the bustle of the iconic and now defunct Godrej typewriter factory in Bombay in 1984.Taraporevala's works beautifully narrate the vivacity of the Parsi community in all its glory. The photographs are an absolute visual treat replete with human emotions of laughter, mirth, anguish, concern, all accentuating the warmth of relations of the subjects towards one another. She has brought alive and immortalised moments of the everyday in these images. Evening strolls, a chat at the street corner or the hurried exchange of pleasantries in the morning, all afford glimpses in to the lives of the community.
- Identifier
- ngma-16820
- Material
- Pigment Print (Photograph)
- Note
- Screenwriter and Photographer, Sooni Taraporevala was born in 1957 in Bombay, India. After her schooling, she received a scholarship to attend Harvard University, where she studied English Literature and Photography followed by Film Theory and Criticism of the New York University. She received her MA in 1981, after which she returned to India to work as a freelance photographer. In 1986 she wrote her first screenplay, Salaam Bombay!, for director Mira Nair. The film was nominated for an Oscar. Her second screenplay, Mississippi Masala, also for Mira Nair, was made into a film starring Denzel Washington for which Taraporevala won the Osella award for Best Screenplay at the Venice Film Festival, 1990. Her other screenplay credits include the films Such a Long Journey, based on the novel by Rohinton Mistry and directed by Sturla Gunnarson, the film Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar directed by Dr Jabbar Patel and The Namesake, directed by Mira Nair, based on the book by Jhumpa Lahiri. She wrote and directed her first feature film, Little Zizou, 2008, which won the National Award from the Indian government. In 2000 she also authored and published a book of her photographs PARSIS: The Zoroastrians of India, A Photographic Journey. Shot over 25 years, the book documents the community through intimate, everyday moments. Photographs from Parsis were included in the Tate Modern's 2001 exhibition Century City: Art and Culture in the Modern Metropolis, India Moderna IVAM Institut Valencia d'Art Modern 2008, Photoquai, Musee de Quai Branly, 2009, and most recently, solo shows at Harvard University's Sert Gallery in October 2012, Chemould Prescott Road in Mumbai and at the National Gallery of Modern Art, Delhi where they are part of NGMA's permanent collection.
- Pages
- 50.7 x 76.2 cm
- Published in
- India
- Type
- Photograph
