Where Three Dreams Cross: 150 Years of Photography From India, Pakistan & Bangladesh

Histories of photography, as presented through books or exhibitions in the twentieth century, have been dominated by Europe and America. This publication and the exhibition it accompanies, articulate the untold story of an equally significant history, as rich and as formally innovative, yet embedded in the culture and politics of South Asia. Where Three Dreams Cross traces the characteristics of contemporary photography through its historical precedents, revealing the roots of the medium’s development over the past 150 years. Its starting point is the crucial moment when the power to hold a camera, frame and capture images was no longer exclusively the preserve of colonial or European photographers. Both the major upheavals of politics and technology and the quotidian events of family, culture and ritual have been captured through the lens of some 80 artists. Their work also demonstrates formal experimentation and aesthetic lines of enquiry that are indigenous yet of universal interest. With essays by Sabeena Gadihoke, Geeta Kapur and Christopher Pinney, among others.