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Podcast: EMPIRE LINES
Episode: European Photographs in the Illustrated Weekly of India, Debalina Majumdar and Manobina Roy (1959-1960)
Description: Dr. Mallika Leuzinger pictures post-colonial Indian perspectives, through Debalina Majumdar and Manobina Roy’s European photographs published in the Illustrated Weekly of India in 1959 and 1960.
In 1959, the Indian twin sisters Debalina Majumdar and Manobina Roy embarked on a six month tour across London, Paris, and Geneva. Keen amateur photographers, and members of the transnational United Provinces Photographic Association, they arrived with their cameras slung over their saris, pointed to capture new places, people, and perceptions for audiences back home. Reversing the dynamics of colonial subjectivity, their street photographs reframed what it meant to photograph and be photographed fo...