Downtown

Kolkata and Other Happenings

By Sumit Basu

Outside India

India: ₹1344

Release Date : Jully, 2024
Design : Barnali Bose
Edition : 300
Details : Hard Case Book, 23.5 x 16.5 cm
ISBN : 978-81-976080-2-5

Sumit Basu’s ‘Downtown Kolkata and Other Happenings’ is a journey through the socio-cultural, architectural as well as naturalistic landscape of Kolkata, accompanied with a trace of ambiguity. Basu’s lens often captures the serendipity or the accidental chance that the city offers every now and then, making his photographs more connected to the mundane yet magical existence of the spaces around us. Combining history, memory and imagination, his images communicate a story through the chiaroscuro of paradoxical semblances, typical of the city’s metropolitan identity. In addition, Basu attempts to go beyond the transfer of his own ideas and leaves a space for ruminations for his viewers as well as this book poses an eternal question, “After all this –  now what?”

Sumit Basu(1945) is an auto didact photographer, familiar with a camera from his schooldays. He has had many one man shows and participated in several important group exhibitions in India and abroad. Important shows include at Vadhera Gallery, NCPA Mumbai, The Birla Academy, Kolkata, CIMA Gallery, Leica Gallery New Delhi, Contemporary Gallery, Hong Kong , Disharee Arts amongst others. His first Photo book Time in Banaras was published in 2015. He has also contributed articles and reviews on photography to various publications.
His other interests are listening to Hindustani Classical music and collecting art and photobooks. Sumit Basu is based in Kolkata.