Instagram is taking its photographs from phone screens to gallery walls, with its first-ever photography exhibition in India. Being held in Kolkata from Jan. 7 to 9, Bengal's Diversity in Pictures captures stories from the eastern Indian state through the lenses of local Instagrammers.
The first Instagram exhibition was held at Phoville, New York in 2014, but this is the first such show in India. It features the work of 17 Instagrammers, whose images were curated with the help of the local community Calcutta Instagrammers. The pictures are being displayed as life-sized Instagram posts placed inside a frame.
They include photographs of landscapes and wildlife from the Sundarban mangroves; festivals such as Holi, Ramzan and Durga Puja; and cultural traditions such as Chhau dance and pata-chitra painting, taken by both professional photographers as well as amateurs. There are also quiet moments from everyday life such as a waiter carrying a tray in Kolkata's historic Indian Coffee House, and local children jumping into the Ganges river in front of the city's Howrah bridge.
"The Instagram community in Kolkata is highly active and passionate about their city. We are supporting people who share a diversity of stories and perspectives of what home in Bengal means to them and feel that this is a natural amplification of how people use Instagram," an Instagram spokesperson said.
The Calcutta Instagrammers group founded by Sammyabrata Mullick six months ago as a "repository of pictures of Bengal" is an example of this vibrant community. With over 2,100 followers, Calcutta Instagrammers organises regular Instagram walks, meets and discussions.
Mullick's photograph portrays a local pata-chitra artist painting the image of goddess Durga, during the festival of Durga Puja in Howrah district, a hub for handicrafts and pottery."Instagram is a good platform to share a picture and get appreciated from different parts of the world," Mullick, who pursues photography as a hobby, says.
On the other hand, Reuters photojournalist Anindito Mukherjee considers Instagram to be the right platform to show photographs "which don't get the right opportunity in publications". Mukherjee often takes time out from official assignments to take Instagram photographs with his phone camera.
"A phone is always with me and so becomes a handy tool," says Mukherjee. "Getting the right moment is more important than covering it later with a professional camera."