The Sultans of Gujarat built a lasting cultural legacy that lives on through the incredible mosques, tombs, palaces and shrines they left behind in Ahmedabad, Cambay, Patan and Champaner. Let’s go on a tour of the Sultanate through rare photographs from the Sarmaya collection
Read more ...Rock & Ruler: Golconda’s Trail of Diamonds
Empire of Faith: Into the realm of the Buddha & the Mauryas
Most Indians are familiar with the great emperors and exploits of the Mauryan empire. But until a few hundred years ago, their legacies lay buried in ruins, their faith forgotten by time. This is the story of a remarkable resurrection
Read more ...reimagine I
‘reimagine’ is an ongoing Instagram-exclusive series through which we make connections across the Sarmaya collection and examine the extent to which our ways of seeing — and an object’s own meaning — are informed by time, space, and context
Of Silk and Spice: A Tale of Two Empires
Sometimes rulers are remembered in song, sometimes in the clinking of coins. Let’s explore the empires of the Cheras and Kushans, whose greatness is echoed in the trade routes they forged
Read more ...Untitled (Gond Art)
Book of Kings: Early Mughal portraits in Muraqqa’s
Sarmaya x Museum Rietberg
Metal Head: Royal Portraiture on the Ancient and Medieval Coins of India
The rulers of a bygone India put their likenesses on coins to announce in unambiguous terms their absolute dominance over the land. What else do these tiny metal portraits tell us about the subject in question? Let’s peel back the layers
Read more ...Family Portraiture: An attempt at reading a personal album
We dive into a study of family portraiture with a set of three albums belonging to John Sinclair, the First Lord Pentland, and the Governor of Madras between 1912 and 1919—and draw out the themes that emerge from this treasure trove of 20th-century photography
Read more ...Parallel Histories: Personal Photos as a Political Statement
Think Small: Carte de Visites, Cabinet Cards & Travelling Portraits
The invention of Carte de Visites and Cabinet Cards made photography affordable and accessible to the masses—and this changed the very nature of the beast. Through Sarmaya’s priceless collection, we present a history of portable portraits
Read more ...Photo Album: Views, India Tour. 1881
Wanderings of a Pilgrim; Rarebook by Fanny Parkes Parlby
King’s Circle – Ram Singh & the Art of Intimate Portraiture
We spoke to Aparna Andhare, Curator of the Maharaja Sawai Man Singh II Museum about Maharaja Sawai Ram Singh’s iconic portraits of the royal zenana and the man himself
Read more ...Portraits of a Pandemic
We asked photographers and artists how they interpreted the seasons of 2020 through their work to paint a portrait of an extraordinary year
Now reading: The stories every picture tells
Early Photography
Beyond the Form: Portraits in Modern Indian Art
Discovering the portraiture of four Modern artists from the Sarmaya collection — F.N. Souza, Laxma Goud, Dhruvi Acharya and Alexander Gorlizki
Read more ...People of India
“A portrait is not made in the camera but on either side of it.” As the chief photographer for Vogue and Vanity Fair in the early 1900s, Edward Steichen knew what he was talking about. Portraiture is the result of a dynamic collaboration between photographer and model, both of whom colour the final frame with… Read more »
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