Savsani Bhakti

HR4001

My research here is focused on Madan Mahatta’s capture of the built environment, specifically the modern buildings that came after post-independence in the Lutyen’s Delhi. While we often look at the photographs to discuss the buildings and related narratives, what I found compelling looking at the photographs by him was how the buildings were captured. The modernist buildings with the stark forms, stand-alone in most cases devoid of context, varied compositions, the humans, motions, and the physical environment presented almost as if everything has been staged. While we know and we almost generalize these observations with respect to the modernist ideology, architectural photographs are often not looked at through this lens. My attempt here is to look at these photographs through the lens of capture in terms of formal qualities.