The Calcutta Photo Tours Blog

When a little birdie said that today is National Camera Day (err… don’t ask which Nation) a photo that I wanted to share for a while topped the list of options for a photo to commemorate this day.  In today’s world of these, “days” for just about everything under the Earth AND hashtags to boot why should National Camera Day be left in the lurch!  So here is a self-portrait (rejoice all ye selfie queens) of Annapurna Dutta c. 1920 Who was Annapurna Dutta you may ask, and to quickly answer that, I quote Siddhartha Ghosh : “Annapurna Dutta, a Bengali photographer, appeared on the scene in the 1920s. Although she was not the first professional woman photographer, she was the first to enjoy a long career in photography and to earn her living from it. I heard of Annapurna Dutta from Kalyan Saha and his wife, Namita Saha. They had regaled me with stories about the exploits of their “artist aunt” who would appear with her camera for every family function. It was they who...

A visit to the blog after ages and what better day to re-vist it, than Earth Day. OK, Earth Day just happened to happen today. What really prompted the visit and the desire to write here again on a regular basis (fingers crossed, it is such a discipline that I am clearly not disciplined enough for that, nor prolific a writer to able to churn out so much content) was this absolutely wonderful discussion I had this morning with a guest from Italy - who was excited enough to start soaking in the city, that she and her husband chose to start their Calcutta experience from the airport itself. Well, in all honesty it was a special conversation because English wasn’t her strength and my Italian was limited to Google translate and an occasional “si”, “bellissimo” “bella” but there was so much to be discussed, so much to share, such cultural exchanges to be made. What prompted this particular discussion was this sight - and me uttering the words “urban decay” as we photographers usually ...