A Culture Revealed
Philippe Garner
Barbara and I go back forty years. Our professional lives have run in parallel, both of us devoted enthusiasts sharing a deep love of Art Nouveau, Barbara as a prominent New York gallerist, myself as an auctioneer. Our passion for the sensuous lines of French Art Nouveau furniture or graphics, or for the rich, jewel-like colors and effects of the glass created around 1900 by Louis Comfort Tiffany in the United States or Emile Gallé in France brought us together and gave us much to discuss over the years.
Barbara knew that my other area of professional and personal interest was the history of photography, but, although on more than one occasion she told me of her own delight in taking pictures, we never discussed that side of our lives in any detail. What a delightful surprise it was, therefore, to discover the full story of her intensive pursuit of this self-initiated project to capture in photographs the spirit of India and of the Indian people; and what a pleasure to have this opportunity to write a few words about Barbara’s venture.
The Indian sub-continent has been a subject of fascination for photographers since the mid-nineteenth century, when expatriate British practitioners, many of them military officers or colonial civil servants, were seduced by the wonders before them and motivated to record the landscape, architectural splendors, people and customs of this magical territory – dubbed by Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli ‘The Jewel in the Crown’ of the British Empire.
Despite the dramatic changes that have transformed our world since that time and despite the accelerating homogenization of so many aspects of our global culture, the authenticity of so much that distinguishes Indian tradition has survived. The peoples of India, their way of life, their philosophy and the vibrant visual symbols of caste, profession and ritual continue to fascinate. While the pioneer photographers of the 1850s and 1860s were limited to the somewhat static rendering of their subjects and to the warm cream-brown monochrome of the albumen print process, modern color photo-technology allows for a more fluid and comprehensive translation of the glories of India, a freedom that Barbara has appreciated and exploited to the full.
I can validate the back-story that so effectively informs her picture-making, the years of long and careful looking at works of art, the opening of her eye and heart to myriad forms of artistic expression. I can confirm specifically, through her connoisseurship in the areas of jewelry and of art glass, that Barbara clearly understands the wonder of light itself as it allows materials to come alive – and what is great photography but the ability to capture those telling moments when light reveals subjects as the most expressive confluences of form and color. The gifted photographer seizes such moments to make richly engaging images such as those we can enjoy in the present volume, images that convey what Barbara describes simply as ‘the warmth, beauty and humanity of the Indian people’.
Philippe Garner
India in My Eyes – Barbara Macklowe
Contributors Philippe Garner & Eleanor Heartney, Foreword by Pritish Nandy
ISBN: 9781906506292
Publisher: Papadakis
Territory: USA & Canada
Size: 9.75 in x 13.75 in
Pages: 272
Illustrations: 176 color
Hardback
