Nehru with his grandson, Rajiv Gandhi, and his daughter, Indira Gandhi, in an undated photo from the Kulwant Roy Collection. (Aditya Arya Archives, Kulwant Roy Collection)
By Jeremy Kahn, The International Herald Tribune
New Delhi—The yellow crates haunted Aditya Arya. A successful advertising photographer whose clients have ranged from India's luxury Oberoi Hotel chain to Russia's Bolshoi Ballet, Arya inherited the crates from a family friend, an old photojournalist named Kulwant Roy, in 1984. And for more than two decades, Arya had hauled the increasingly dusty trunks around a succession of studios, stashing them in out of the way corners and closets. He had a vague sense of what the crates contained—bundles of prints and negatives—and at least once a year his mother would nag him about them. But he was always too busy with his own assignments to spend time pouring over someone else's fading pictures.
Then, in December, Arya finally opened the crates. What he discovered is a remarkable photographic record of modern Indian history, including thousands of images from the last days of the Raj through the 1960s, many of which have never been published....
READ ON at iht.com
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Mike (Thanks to Judy Kiel)
A fascinating story! Thanks for bringing it to us.
I hope a book of collected work by Roy will come out of this effort.
Posted by: Animesh Ray | Wednesday, 18 June 2008 at 11:38 AM
The historical/documentary aspect is one of the most fascinating aspects of photography, no doubt.
Posted by: Thiago Silva | Wednesday, 18 June 2008 at 12:49 PM
What a trove!
That would be an excellent show. I could never have waited 20 years to open something like that.
great stuff.
Posted by: charlie d | Wednesday, 18 June 2008 at 06:07 PM
Lovely find.
Am I the only person to be shocked by the NYT confusing "pouring over" with "poring over" though ?
You just can't get the subs these days.
RDP
Posted by: robert | Wednesday, 18 June 2008 at 09:56 PM
I have a family album photo of my dad with these three persons from 1957. The boy, Rajiv Gandhi, looks a year or two older than in the picture I have, so I'd date this photo to c. 1959.
Posted by: MS | Thursday, 19 June 2008 at 02:22 AM
The sad part of the story is how many crates of negatives/prints were tossed out by someone who had no clue of the history in them. I have purchased many boxes of slides for the cases and carousals only to find a life story in them. As someone who has a precious few pictures of my family's past, I can only hope that in the future a family member will treasure the photos I take today.
Posted by: eric mac | Thursday, 19 June 2008 at 08:11 AM
Incredible!
The transition from British rule to Indian self determination was amazing. So much happened in such a short period.
I like some of the images Henri Cartier-Bresson made during this time. I can't wait to see what this newly revealed body of work yields.
Posted by: Christopher Perez | Thursday, 19 June 2008 at 01:12 PM
This picture is awesome - three Prime Ministers in one shot, of course at the time of shooting Mr. Roy did not know that.
Posted by: akshivalik | Saturday, 21 June 2008 at 09:56 AM