Historical photos of the Kaʿba and the Hajj season

The Kaʿba is the holiest site in Islam.

The British Library

· Jul 10, 2022 · 01:30 pm

Remembering Sam Tata, the photographer who was equally at ease on the street and in the studio

Between taking portraits of everyone from Prithviraj Kapoor to Leonard Cohen, Tata teamed with Henri Cartier-Bresson to capture a snapshot of the 20th century.

Kamayani Sharma

· Jun 09, 2022 · 11:30 am

In photos: How Gurugram’s now-demolished Kaman Sarai helps residents reimagine their city

Structures like sarais or darwaazas offers an opportunity to look at the city in ways other than as a corporate hub.

Tsomo Wangchuk

 & 

Nishita Bannerjee

· Jun 15, 2021 · 11:30 am

What does this image of an owl in an English church have to do with antisemitism?

The association of owls with Jews draws from Christian parables categorising ‘good’ and ‘evil’ animals.

Erika Harlitz-Kern, Aeon

· Mar 28, 2020 · 11:30 pm

Lost photos of the band Blue Notes capture the time before jazz was exiled from South Africa

A notable addition to a thin archive, Norman Owen-Smith’s photos capture a racially mixed band in passionate play, just before they went into exile.

Lindelwa Dalamba, The Conversation

· Oct 17, 2019 · 11:30 pm

Ugandan dictator Idi Amin had his entire reign photographed. The images were missing – until now

The pictures are the focus of a new exhibition, which allows a traumatic, divisive period in the African nation’s history to be assessed.

Derek R Peterson and Richard Vokes, The Conversation

· Jun 29, 2019 · 07:30 pm

‘Bombs going off like the rains in Sawan’: A reminder from Indian WWI soldiers on the cost of war

Nearly 1.3 million Indian soldiers served in the war. Through memorabilia and paintings, artist Angeli Sowani depicts their sufferings, sacrifices and valour.

Urmi Chanda-Vaz

· Mar 23, 2019 · 11:30 am

How the Indian everyman became a subject of art

An exhibition of Company paintings in Mumbai remind us of the dual purpose they served for their British patrons: ‘memorialisation and surveillance’.

Urmi Chanda-Vaz

· Jan 06, 2019 · 11:30 am

Photos: An Indian couple has built a collection of 4,500 Raj-era picture postcards

A part of Sangeeta and Ratnesh Mathur’s collection has been curated into the book ‘Picturesque India’.

Zinnia Ray Chaudhuri

· Dec 09, 2018 · 11:30 am

Photos: How ancient manuscripts have depicted the teachings of Gautam Buddha

Snapshots from the British Library’s ‘Buddhism Illuminated: Manuscript Art from Southeast Asia’.

San San May

 & 

Jana Igunma

· Nov 15, 2018 · 09:30 pm

How the British used postcards as a propaganda tool during the Bombay plague of 1896

In his coffee-table book, ‘Paper Jewels: Postcards from the Raj’, historian and collector Omar Khan documents how postcards became a window to world history.

Zinnia Ray Chaudhuri

· Sep 22, 2018 · 11:30 am

Photos: The American photographer who came to Calcutta during WWII and fell in love with the city

Clyde Waddell spent around two years in South Asia, but it was Calcutta that fascinated him.

Anu Kumar

· May 15, 2018 · 11:30 am