Indian Archive Exhibition, this historic collection of images represents the work of the once forgotten Indian photojournalist, Kulwant Roy (1914 – 1984). Tracing mainstream nationalist history, the collection comprises historic political meetings, iconic portraits and glimpses into the lives of famous freedom fighters and leaders of India. In addition, are rare images of everyday life and nation building from the early days of independent India. Priceless moments of history, dating from the 1930s to 1960s, that spring to life in black and white.
Born in Baglikalan in Ludhiana, Punjab, Roy started his photographic career in his twenties. One of his earliest landmark works was documenting the meeting between Mahatma Gandhi and Khan Adbul Ghafar Khan in the North West Frontier Province in 1938. later, he joined the Royal Indian Air Force, where he used his skills to take aerial shots from the cockpits of planes. Headstrong and patriotic, Roy found it difficult to tolerate the discriminatory policies of his British superiors and had to leave the air force after being court-martialled.
Relocating to Delhi before Partition, Roy witnessed and captured many of the events that led up to the independence of India, in close-up. Following mainstream national leaders, major meetings and events, travels and engagements, his work captures the spirit and energy, hopes and aspirations of those times.
But a decade after India found her freedom, Roy was still restless, still searching. In 1958, he left the country on a whim to travel the world, carrying with him photographs of Indian religious events, ethnic costumes, pilgrimages and snow capped mountains that eventually found their way into scores of picture stories in different languages around the world. He also took photographs in the twenty countries he visited and all these images funded this early global traveller. In 1963, Roy put all his prints and negatives together in boxes and mailed them to back his address in Delhi. But on his return, he found none of them had reached. Broken in spirit, he was to spend the last years of his life scouting post offices and hunting for the boxes in garbage dumps of Delhi.
All rights held by the Aditya Arya Archive.
One of the first photographic archives in India, the Aditya Arya Archive has been set up with the objective to preserve photographic archives by digitising, documenting and annotating collections. The special focus of the archive is on pre and post independence photography in India, both amateur and professional. The archive also seeks to create an awareness of the historic value of photographic collections, set precedent and standards for their preservation, collation, restoration, documentation, and support the dissemination, access and use of such archives for academic, institutional and cultural purposes.
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