Glimpses of Vintage Mumbai: Monochrome city

01 July,2015 08:44 AM IST |   |  Suprita Mitter

From Mumbai to Bombay is an exhibition of vintage photographs of Mumbai from the 1900s that has been curated by Ajay Goyal, who is the director of Shivaji Flour Mills, a family-run business


What: From Mumbai to Bombay is an exhibition of vintage photographs of Mumbai from the 1900s that has been curated by Ajay Goyal, who is the director of Shivaji Flour Mills, a family-run business.


An undated photograph of Apollo Bunder with Gateway of India, Old Taj Mahal Hotel and Green's Hotel. Pics courtesy/Ajay Goyal

He is interested in Indian history and is a collector of old photographs, picture postcards of Mumbai and coins of India. These photographs are his prized collections, as well as those of art collectors Anil Dave and Dr Jehangir Sorabjee.

This one of a kind exhibition has a collection of 75 images priced at R5,000 each. It offers the viewer a chance to see Bombay before it became Mumbai.

How: Photography was invented in the early nineteenth century. Soon after, the first cameras arrived in India, and the city was documented exhaustively between the end of the 1800s and beginning of the 1900s.

An undated picture of a horse taxi at Horniman Circle

This exhibition includes stunning images of Apollo Bunder with Gateway of India, the old Taj Mahal Hotel and Green's Hotel which was demolished and the new Taj Mahal Hotel was built at the same spot. There is an iconic picture of Kala Ghoda with King Edward on a black horse; today this statue stands at Byculla's Jijamata Udyan.


An undated picture of Khada Parsi at the original spot at Byculla before it was shifted to its present location at Byculla

One can also view an image of the long-gone Colaba Railway Station. Most intriguing is the Khada Parsi statue at the original spot from where it was shifted to its present location, flanked by two flyovers in Byculla. Churchgate station, resembling a charming English villa, is a rare frame too.


An undated picture of Churchgate station

There are treasured vistas of Colaba's streets dotted with bullock carts besides the still-standing Horniman Circle with its horse taxis, Dadabhai Naoroji Road with a tram and Flora Fountain with the first cars.

Where: Till: July 17, (Sunday closed) 11 am to 6 pm
At: Dinodia Photo Gallery, 66 Bajaj Bhavan, Nariman Point.
Call: 22044016

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