Mastering the Lens: Before and After Cartier Bresson in Pondicherry

This exhibition is an attempt to briefly trace the development of photography in Pondicherry spanning the late 19th and early 20th century. Drawn exclusively from the Alkazi Collection, at the core of this initiative is an unbound and unpublished album of Cartier - Bresson, founder of Magnum Photos, who visited the Aurobindo Ashram in April 1950. He clicked the last pictures of Sri Aurobindo Ghose in the company of his spiritual companion, 'the Mother'. Also see a publication for the exhibition, collaboratively published by the Alkazi Collection, Mapin and the French Embassy. The exhibition is dedicated to the late wife of Bresson, Martine Frank, who passed away last month.