eBook

Photo-Attractions

Sinha, Ajay

2022,2023

Overview

In Spring 1938, an Indian dancer named Ram Gopal and an American writer-photographer named Carl Van Vechten came together for a photoshoot in New York City. Ram Gopal was a pioneer of classical Indian dance and Van Vechten was reputed as a prominent white patron of the African-American movement called the Harlem Renaissance. Photo-Attractions describes the interpersonal desires and expectations of the two men that took shape when the dancer took pose in exotic costumes in front of Van Vechten's Leica camera. The spectacular images provide a rare and compelling record of an underrepresented history of transcultural exchanges during the interwar years of early-20th century, made briefly visible through photography. Art historian Ajay Sinha uses these hitherto unpublished photographs and archival research to raise provocative and important questions about photographic technology, colonial histories, race, sexuality and transcultural desires. Challenging the assumption that Gopal was merely objectified by Van Vechten's Orientalist gaze, he explores the ways in which the Indian dancer co-authored the photos. In Sinha's reading, Van Vechten's New York studio becomes a promiscuous contact zone between world cultures, where a \"photo-erotic\" triangle is formed between the American photographer, Indian dancer, and German camera. A groundbreaking study of global modernity, Photo-Attractions brings scholarship on American photography, literature, race and sexual economies into conversation with work on South Asian visual culture, dance, and gender. In these remarkable historical documents, it locates the pleasure taken in cultural difference that still resonates today.

• Publisher: Rutgers University Press
• Subject: artistic analysis / Artists, Architects, Photographers / Asian American Studies / BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Artists, Architects, Photographers / cameras / Canon cameras / Carl Van Vetchen / cheap photography camera / cheap video camera / cross-cultural art / cultural interactions / cultural reflections / dance photography / Dancers / dancing / Ethnic Studies / Gay & Lesbian / Gay Studies / global interactions / Harlem Renaissance / homoeroticism / Indian art / Indian culture / Indian dancing / Individual Photographers / LGBT activism / LGBT rights / LITERARY CRITICISM / LITERARY CRITICISM / Modern / 20th Century / LITERARY CRITICISM / LGBT / multicultural art / Nikon cameras / NYC activism / NYC photoshoots / PERFORMING ARTS / Dance / History & Criticism / Photographers / PHOTOGRAPHY / Photography / General / Photography / Individual Photographers / Monographs / photography analysis / Portrait photography / Portraits / Ram Gopal / Ram Gopal,-1917 / SOCIAL SCIENCE / SOCIAL SCIENCE / Ethnic Studies / Asian American Studies / SOCIAL SCIENCE / Ethnic Studies / Asian Studies / SOCIAL SCIENCE / LGBT Studies / Bisexual Studies / SOCIAL SCIENCE / LGBT Studies / Gay Studies / South Asian art / South Asian history
• ISBN: 1978830521, 9781978830523, 1978830505, 9781978830493, 9781978830509, 9781978830486, 1978830491, 1978830483