A loving lens focuses on the city’s Art Deco wonders
This photograph from Kuber Shah’s exhibition features Liberty Cinema, an Art Deco single screen movie theatre
It probably started the day someone broke into my apartment, and stole my computer and hard drives. I lost most of the memories I’d collected over the years,” says photographer Kuber Shah when asked how he began documenting Mumbai’s heritage architecture.
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When he returned to the city in 2014, after living overseas for 14 years, he was saddened to see the city’s architectural landscape rapidly change and disintegrate amidst modern redevelopments. “I noticed that several buildings, bungalows and many other structures had suddenly disappeared, or were lost behind imposing bridges and hanging wires.”
What curiously started as a hobby project on Instagram called Doors of Mumbai—photographs of unique façades and entrances of old buildings—has become an insight into the details and layers of each structure, and stories that may soon be forgotten. After accumulating a collection of pictures over the past decade—ranging from heritage districts in South Mumbai to the gullies of Bandra and Dadar Parsi Colony—Shah’s body of work is being displayed this month at Kathiwada City House in a show titled Space. Structure. Storey. “I always try to click anything I can each time I pass by an old building or home. Each photograph is a tangible statement to make people aware of what Bombay was, and how we have lost good design over time,” he laments.
Kuber Shah
Gaining prominence after World War I, the Art Deco style is characterised by sleek geometric lines paired with bold vibrant colours evolved as a design to provide maximum style at minimum cost. It gained popularity in the city through the 1930s and the 1940s, when Bombay was seeking a certain modernity in architecture. Sharp zig-zag strokes with angular forms and bold ornamental fonts playfully arranged in an unfussy manner broke away from more stoic, rigid designs of the past.
“The exhibition starts with a series of photographs of Liberty Cinema, which also marks the decline or end of Art Deco architecture, as well as design of this size and calibre,” Shah points out. “It then moves on to a film-noir inspired black-and-white series of intricately designed nooks and corners of the theatre, which will remind a viewer of the golden era of Indian cinema.” Since staircases played a pivotal role in traditional theatres, connecting the floors for the stalls to the balcony and dress circle upstairs—there’s also a complementing series of stairways and the Art Deco buildings they are housed in.
“Over the years, I’ve learnt to photograph the city in a certain way to create an archive that will, perhaps, one day be a reminder of what the city once was, along with its many layers of metamorphosis. I’ve discovered a lot about design, furniture and heritage preservation, but most significantly, imagining the vision that was behind some of our iconic buildings,” Shah describes. While he says his documentation of the city will never be complete, he’s eyeing a new series on Art Deco signages and building names in the near future.
WHAT: Space. Structure. Storey. by photographer Kuber Shah
WHERE: Kathiwada City House, 69, Sir Pochkhanawala Road, Worli
WHEN: Till September 18, 11 AM to 7 PM
CALL: 9372859864
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