23 November,2016 10:52 AM IST | | Dipanjan Sinha
Ram Rahman, noted photographer and curator, will be in the city to present this lesser-known side of his creative oeuvre in a talk titled, Designing History, at Bhau Daji Lad Mumbai City Museum this week
Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts curated by Ram Rahman
"Through my work as a designer of books, posters and museums, I will explore how the tools of design can be used to express history and politics," says Ram Rahman, noted photographer and curator, who will be in the city to present this lesser-known side of his creative oeuvre in a talk titled, Designing History, at Bhau Daji Lad Mumbai City Museum this week.
Rahman says that in the last 30 years, he has designed books for multiple publications but mostly for independent publishers, Tulika Press. "A lot of these were books by senior historians and social scientists that involved subjects like historical figures, events, and cultural and political histories. The covers thus had to be unusual, carrying the essence of what the author was writing about," he says. Apart from books, his posters on landmarks during the freedom movement and important figures like Gandhi and Bhagat Singh also are an expression of his politics.
A project that he will discuss at the talk is designing the Indira Gandhi Memorial Museum at her former residence in Delhi. "It was a challenge since it was not just about chronicling her. I needed to go back to the elaborate backstory of the Nehru family and do justice to the importance of the family in the history of the country," he says. Rahman will also present his work as a cultural activist, designing and conceptualising exhibitions for Sahmat, a trust in memory of theatre activist Safdar Hashmi, including Hum Sab Ayodhya, which is still shown as a travelling exhibit 23 years after it was made.
Book cover designed by Rahman
On: Nov 26, 6pm to 8pm
At: Bhau Daji Lad Mumbai City Museum, Byculla (E)
Call: 23731234
