German photographer Peter Bialobrzeski frames Mumbai's madness

Frames from Mumbai Suburbia: Urban Environment in Crisis - a photo project by Peter Bialobrzeski

"A fouled Sun rises from behind the textile mills
As I crawl out of my nightmares and hobble
To the sink. Then I luxuriate in the toilet
While my unprivileged compatriots of Parel Road Cross Lane
Defecate along the stone wall of
Byculla Goods Depot"
The View from Chinchpokli, Dilip Chitre, 1980

The clean, well-lit, tarmac roads of SoBo are like a rack of neatly-folded clothes in a wardrobe that threaten to tumble over every time it is opened; like a pleasant exception to a discomforting reality. The suburbs are, on the other hand, a canvas full of accidentally spilled paint - a mindless, chaotic, overcrowded hotchpotch of everything. This is what 52-year-old Peter Bialobrzeski set out to capture, during his artist residency at Goethe Institute.

Bialobrzeski is a veteran photographer and has travelled Asia extensively. He has published 16 monographic books in the past 16 years, and Mumbai Suburbia: Urban environment in crisis is his homage to the city, which is going to be displayed at the exhibition that opens today.

Peter Bialobrezski

"While in the West the term suburbia is synonymous with boring leafy streets, in Mumbai, it is an almost dystopian environment littered with garbage and suffocated in fumes," he says, speaking of the essence of the project. The photographs from this series were taken between October and December 2017 and took a year to work on. The final edit of his work here is due to be published in an upcoming book.

The challenges that Bialobrzeski faced included "traffic, illness, madness and fumes". But he says he found solace in the fantastic food, incredible people, the help he received from locals, and his friendship with Mumbai-based photographers Ritesh Uttamchandani and Krishanu Nagar.

Sharing his experience of working on the project he says, "Over a period of more than six weeks I became a resident of Bandra and later, Andheri. I shared the limited space [the city offers] with local commuters, I ate the local food, travelled by autorickshaw, made myself at home, and never felt alienated even though the experience was very different from a cosy and affluent German middle-class life.

I wanted to find out through my photographs how Mumbai was different from the other places I have travelled to in Asia. So, I came with no preconceived notions, but with an openness to experience, explore and analyse. The results are in the pictures. If I had the words, I'd be a writer," adding that his best memory from working on the project is "chicken tikka masala at Lucky Restaurant in Bandra after a long afternoon shoot".

Calling his experience "amazing" in a nutshell, Bialobrzeski promises that the exhibition will be an insight into his experience of roaming around suburban Mumbai, without the dust, fumes, and noise.

Time: 10 am onwards
On: April 24
At: Coomaraswamy Hall, CSMVS, Fort
Call: 22027710
Entry: Museum entry charges