On view through January 10 in Bangalore, India, the exhibition Jyoti Bhatt – Photographs from Rural India retraces more than 50 years of travels taken by the photographer throughout his native country.
Deeply impressed by the exhibition The Family of Man curated by Edward Steichen at New York’s Museum of Modern Art in 1955, Jyoti Bhatt, then in the United States studying printing techniques, produced his first work of photography in 1967 for a conference on the cultural traditions of Gujarat.
From there he traveled to Rajasthan, Bihar and Orissa, documenting the art of these rural communities, which were gradually overtaken by urbanization. Having studied painting before becoming a photographer, Jyoti Bhatt pays special attention to the treatment of materials and shapes, and the relationship between the subject and its environment: his home, his village, the animals he lives among. Bhatt is a major photographer. His spare and often frontal photos form a rich and powerful body of work.
Jyoti Bhatt – Photographs from rural India
Through January 10, 2014
Sua House
26/1 Kasturba Cross Road
Bangalore 560001
India
