Raj Bhavan of Kolkata- A Photographic Tour

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The Raj Bhavan of Kolkata is one of the greatest architectural marvels of the city and an integral part of India's history and heritage. However it has never before been so prolifically captured in the photographic medium.

This album is thus an unique suite of over 50 images that capture the mood and grandeur of the building and its premises. An intimate view of Raj Bhavan as presented here has few parallels if any.

Anirban Mitra is a young, photographer based at Kolkata, India.

He mainly works in the traditional, classic black and white film medium.

Inspired by the great masters, he always shoots in available light and with hand held camera; to maintain the chiaroscuro of natural light, he never uses any artificial light in photography.

I was always very eager to work extensively on the subject of Old Calcutta. For capturing the city's imperial grandeur, as a pilot effort, I intended to start with Raj Bhavan as a sort of 'Ground Zero'. I got a rare permission to photograph this magnificent building. for a young, budding photographer like me, it was truly a dream come true. I was determined to make good use of this golden opportunity. Armed with my hand held Nikon SLR film camera, a heavy zoom lens and a few rolls of black and white print film. I completed my work in a feverish frenzy in a short span of time working from morning to evening. The results came out satisfactory and were appreciated by The Governor Shri Gopalkrishna Gandhi. Subsequently, it was when I was planning to go ahead with photographing the other locales in Kolkata, that Mr. Neeraj Mittal of B. R. Publishing Corporation gave me this publication offer exclusively for my work on Raj Bhavan. I immediately accepted the same.

The Raj Bhavan is a grand and imposing building. It is paramount in terms of its historic significance as well. As I roamed around its hauntingly beautiful interiors lavishly furnished with exquisite period furniture, glittering chandeliers and its gracious gardens, I was mesmerised and hardly had a chance to take my eyes off the camera. It was very difficult to edit out what may not be photographed! In this book, we present you highlights of the beauty of this building through the eyes of a curious visitor. As you flip through the pages, I hope you will be able to enjoy the atmosphere and make a visual journey in history without having to be there physically. It is well understood that a project like this cannot be made to see the light of the day without help and cooperation from a number of organizations and people. As a small token of my gratitude towards their invaluable help, I have acknowledged their names in this book. A few persons deserve very special mention.

Shri Gopalkrishna Gandhi for his kind permission to allow photo shoot in the Raj Bhavan, the meeting to show him my work and last but not the least, a brilliant 'Foreword', the ornament of this book.

Kolkata's first residence' is the last to seek exclusiveness. At the heart of the city's bustle, it is a participant in its surroundings. it rejoices in the joyous eruptions from Eden Gardens. It hears the roar of football viewers, mass meetings on the Maidan. It receives vibrations of debates in the neighbouring Legislative Assembly. is never beyond reach from suspenseful moments at the High Court's hearings nearby And yet, in the midst of all this, Raj Bhavan remains its own person'. It welcomes the visitor with a hush broken only by the profusion of birdsong in its garden and the soft crunch of its pebbled pathway.

Over more than two centuries, the House has known the joy of comings and welcomings, of nuptials and births. Equally, it has had its share of sad events. Where it has aged, Raj Bhavan has done so without growing infirm Where it has remained young, it has done so without juvenilism. Handsome beyond compare, it has let 'renovators' work on it. It has appreciated their ardour if not always, their taste. It has cherished its carved furniture, it has nestled its rare books.

Patronised by those who think they are commissioning, changing or conserving it, the House lets them do so, even as it indulges those who use it, forgiving those who misuse it. And it smiles at those who, having worked long and well in it, yet miss out on its story. And that story is of a witness to the temporariness of all constructs, including itself.

Anirban Mitra's photographs contribute to an understanding of that story, with a rare vividness and integrity.

his album belongs to a prestigious genre of This monumental genre The architectural photography. has a long lineage in India's colonial history, when the country's rich inheritance of ancient archaeological and architectural sites alongside her modern legacy of imperial buildings became prime subjects for photography. Over time, the art of photography devised a variety of imaging perspectives to play on the monumentality of structures, to convey an overwhelming sense of the scale and grandeur of their constructed form against surrounding settings, to take viewers deep into the inner chambers of caves, temples, forts and palaces which would have been usually barred to public entry, or to gift them with a close and enlarged view of a building's ornamental and sculptural details that were seldom accessible at ground level. for the photographer, the idea was to give a body, voice and life to architectural form. The intention was to allow silent structures to tell their own stories through a serialized sequence of their images (of exteriors and interiors, full views and intimate details) - to enable experts and connoisseurs to glean from these images a detailed history of architectural and sculptural styles, scholars to conjure from these a larger history of the times, places, patrons and powers to which the buildings belonged, and a non-specialist public to partake of the sheer visual awe and aura that they exuded.

Anirban Mitra's album fulfills all these qualities of the genre in the manner in which it presents the Raj Bhavan of Calcutta. We experience its effects in the way it lays out the architectural anatomy of this imposing structure: then takes us on an in-house tour of its columned corridors and halls, winding staircases, throne room, ball and banquet rooms, providing us with a scrutiny of period-piece chandeliers, furniture, vases, urns, not least of all, an ornate antique lift; letting us look out onto the cityscape from the vast verandahs and windows of the building; finally allowing us to stroll through the sprawling grounds to encounter cannons and sculptures, trees and bridges, and the boundary railings and gateways. Stripped of human presence (barring the liveried staff who stand as silent sentinel at Curzon's lift), architectural space assumes here an all-engulfing life of its own. Emptiness becomes the mark of the haughty exclusivity of these premises, and is made to echo with the many strains of imperial history that were played out in this residence of India's Viceroys and Governors. We are treated to an extended display of pure architecture, of the late 18th century "Georgian Pediment and Portico Style", where the magnificence of built form serve as the most eloquent symbol of the centuries of governmental authority that the building has embodied. The use of the traditional black and white medium and of strictly natural light gives every image in the book the status of an art work' and lends each a sense of rarity and status akin to that of the house. On the final count, what serves the purpose of this book and its genre of architectural photography verandahs and windows of the building; finally allowing us to stroll through the sprawling grounds to encounter cannons and sculptures, trees and bridges, and the boundary railings and gateways. Stripped of human presence (barring the liveried staff who stand as silent sentinel at Curzon's lift), architectural space assumes here an all-engulfing life of its own. Emptiness becomes the mark of the haughty exclusivity of these premises, and is made to echo with the many strains of imperial history that were played out in this residence of India's Viceroys and Governors. We are treated to an extended display of pure architecture, of the late 18th century "Georgian Pediment and Portico Style", where the magnificence of built form serve as the most eloquent symbol of the centuries of governmental authority that the building has embodied. The use of the traditional black and white medium and of strictly natural light gives every image in the book the status of an art work' and lends each a sense of rarity and status akin to that of the house. On the final count, what serves the purpose of this book and its genre of architectural photography.

**Contents and Sample Pages**