Apart from the obvious “spirit of Mumbai” reference that people like to use to describe the island city inhabited by over 20 million people, other words that are synonymous with it are struggle and hustle. Chroniclers have been fascinated with these features of the city and have tried to depict it in myriad ways. We speak to four such people who have made Mumbai their muse.
Chirodeep Chaudhuri
A photographer with close to 25 years of experience in documenting Mumbai, Chirodeep considers Mumbai his muse. Chirodeep started out as a journalist, and then, veered towards photojournalism and documentary photography. In the course of time, his assignments as a news photographer and his interest in documenting old architectural heritage buildings of Mumbai provoked him to come up with more ideas related to documenting the city.
“Some of my work is still a continuation of my older ideas. For instance, it has been almost 23 years since I began documenting clocks. I found about 81 buildings with clocks in the city,” he says.
Originally from Kolkata, West Bengal, but raised in Mumbai, Chirodeep believes that Mumbai’s story is intertwined with the idea of his work. He says, “I started doing portraits which were essentially mugshots of my co-commuters when I was travelling by train. I don’t think my project on commuters is about Mumbai’s locals trains. It is about Mumbai as a city, and the local train just became a stage. It is, after all, where much of the drama gets played out. It is intrinsically linked to the life of the city.”
Chirodeep’s works have also been exhibited in galleries. “My work as a photographer documenting the city is a very slow process,” he says. But he admits that even though the time it takes to finish a project fascinates him, he is “not fetishising the length of it”. “A project may last for a year, and it could turn out to be brilliant. The slow discovery of the city is what fascinates me,” he adds.
{{/usCountry}}Chirodeep’s works have also been exhibited in galleries. “My work as a photographer documenting the city is a very slow process,” he says. But he admits that even though the time it takes to finish a project fascinates him, he is “not fetishising the length of it”. “A project may last for a year, and it could turn out to be brilliant. The slow discovery of the city is what fascinates me,” he adds.
{{/usCountry}}Anushree Fadnavis
With a massive following of about 1,00,000 followers on Instagram, Anushree is probably one of the most popular photographers on the photo sharing app. The reason why she is so popular is because of her five-year-long series of images of women travelling in the ladies compartment of the Mumbai locals. She shares them under the hashtag, #traindiaries.
“I grew up seeing my parents commute in local trains to go to work every day. When I started working, I took the train myself. I felt like documenting what I saw and felt during my travel. I had always wanted to maintain a diary, and Instagram, when it was launched, looked like a diary. So, I started using the medium as a virtual diary,” she says.
Some of her subjects are completely oblivious to the fact that they’re being photographed, while some transgender women are seen posing for her without any inhibitions. Train coaches serve as a backdrop for her photographs, and at times, her work appears so intimate that it makes her project a complete raw and authentic effort. “I would travel every day in different trains, some of the people I travelled with became like my extended family, because I would inadvertently bump into them every day,” she says.
Her photographs are shot with her mobile phone. But the pictures are complete with the help of a poignant caption which expresses her thoughts.
Mohammad Aslam Saiyad
An animator by profession, Mohammad works as a general manager at an animation school. Through his primary profile, @bombay_ka_shana, Mohammad documents the lives of people in Mumbai. “The daily hustle and the struggle to survive in this city makes you a smarter person, which is what I want to show through my photographs,” he says.
Apart from @bombay_ka_shana, Aslam has also been documenting life along Mumbai‘s rivers as an ongoing project since 2012.
“Growing up, we lived in Borivali, close to the Sanjay Gandhi National Park,” he says. “I remember swimming in the Dahisar river, but it was only as an adult, that I became capable of observing how much it affects the people who live alongside it.”
This project, which you’ll find on Instagram with the title, @mumbai_river_photo_project, covers people, wildlife, construction, community life and landscapes. It also shows how through apathy, our rivers have been reduced to swamps.
Mohammad says more than photography, he is interested in “people and languages”. Besides these two Instagram projects, he is also a part of another one, which is known as BEST. In January, around 32,000 employees of Brihanmumbai Electricity Supply and Transport (BEST) went on a nine-day strike. This Instagram series uses photographs to recreate the experience of Mumbai’s bus service by using the hashtag #BESTstories.
Gopal MS
Popularly known by his Instagram handle, @mumbaipaused, Gopal has had a fascination for the city for years. Originally from Bengaluru, Karnataka, Gopal moved to Mumbai to work as a copywriter in an advertising agency. Gopal admits that he’s fascinated by different cities. “I love them, and because I am a copywriter, I make all my stories from what I see around me. Stories come from people and the streets. I am interested in how people live their lives, what they wear, what they eat and how the climate affects them,” he says.
Gradually, for him, documenting the city became a full-time hobby. “For instance, I see something different about the Bandra station every two months. The city keeps changing,” he adds.
Gopal started his account in 2012, and now, he has over 24,000 followers. He spends time every day, exploring the narrow bylanes of neighbourhoods such as Ghatkopar, Kurla, Govandi and Chembur.
For him, @mumbaipaused, is his personal project. He says, when he began using Instagram as a tool to express his love for the city, he was one of the first people to do so. “Instagram for me was incidental. It is also immediate and quick, which is why I started using it,” he says.
Armed with his smartphone and a point and shoot digital camera, his work is a repository of sorts. “People who come to me to know about the city are usually architects, urban planners, anthropologists, etc,” he says.