Photo-Attractions
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€36.50
A01=Ajay Sinha
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artistic analysis
Author_Ajay Sinha
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cameras
Canon cameras
Carl Van Vechten
Carl Van Vetchen
Category1=Non-Fiction
Category=AGB
Category=AJ
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Category=AJCD
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Category=ASD
Category=ATQ
Category=BG
Category=DNB
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Category=NHTB
cheap photography camera
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COP=United States
cross-cultural art
cultural interactions
cultural reflections
dance photography
dancing
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eq_biography-true-stories
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eq_society-politics
global interactions
homoeroticism
Indian art
Indian culture
Indian dancing
Language_English
LGBT activism
LGBT rights
multicultural art
Nikon cameras
NYC activism
NYC photoshoots
PA=Available
photography
photography analysis
Price_€20 to €50
PS=Active
Ram Gopal
softlaunch
South Asian art
South Asian history
Product details
- ISBN 9781978830486
- Weight: 653g
- Dimensions: 178 x 254mm
- Publication Date: 11 Nov 2022
- Publisher: Rutgers University Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
- Language: English
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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Art historian Ajay Sinha uses these hitherto unpublished photographs and archival research to raise provocative and important questions about photographic technology, colonial histories, race, sexuality and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.
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.
AJAY SINHA is the Julia '73 and Helene '49 Herzig Professor of Art History at Mount Holyoke College. His books include Imagining Architects: Creativity in Religious Monuments of India and the co-edited collection Bollyworld: Popular Indian Cinema through a Transnational Lens.
