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Calcutta 1940-1970: In the Photographs of Jayant Patel

Paper Type: 130 gsm Art paper (matt) | Size: 300 mm x 225 mm
Black and white; 131 photographs; 224 pages; Hardback

ISBN-10: 9386906023 | ISBN-13: 978-93-86906-02-1

Photography, Travel, History, Culture

1495 | 35 | 25

Calcutta 1940–1970: In the photographs of Jayant Patel is an outstanding collection of black-and-white photographs, depicting a wide swathe of the city and its various neighbourhoods. These photographs go back to the glory days of Bombay Photo Stores when it was a prominent landmark of Park Street. As the official photographer of Government House, today’s Raj Bhavan, Patel documented history in the making. This collection presents glimpses of political life before and after the Partition of a Calcutta that was once the Second City of the Empire.

Soumitra Das

Author

Soumitra Das is a journalist born and based in Calcutta who began his career with The Statesman and is now with The Telegraph. He is deeply involved with the visual arts and heritage issues and writes regularly on these topics. He has a popular column titled ‘Flashback’ on Calcutta’s history and the city’s rapidly changing face. In October 2007, he brought out a book on the streets of Calcutta titled A Jaywalker’s Guide to Calcutta which became a bestseller. He has contributed to the Tramjatra book on Calcutta trams published by an Australian university.

Lila Patel

Concept

Lila Patel, born in Gujarat, grew up in Colombo, Sri Lanka and then in Delhi where she graduated from Lady Irwin College. Lila was a competitive golfer and an entrepreneur. She founded the Flora International, later Flora Enterprise, which supplied live plants and flower arrangements to the corporate world in Calcutta till about 2007.