A group show by Chennai photographers captures landscapes, people and architecture as moments in time

Windowscapes to portraits that mimic sculptures — this group show by Chennai-based photographers meditates on a moment in time

A green tin trunk. Inside are toffee boxes filled with stamps that have travelled countries, continents and time. Handwritten recipes, letters, and sepia-tinted envelopes. A pictorial stamp inscribed for the Ottoman Empire in 1914, when they were nearing total collapse, featuring the former Ministry of War which is now the entrance to the Istanbul University; a handwritten recipe for Everton toffee; a 1935 stamp of Ferdinand Magellan’s landing on the island of Cebu (now part of the Philippines) in 1521. When photographer Ami Gupta chanced upon this treasure chest, a new world opened up. The world of Banoo Pestonji, a woman she had never met and to whom the trunk belonged. Ami instantly realised that this unique collection of historical markers is worth a display. In the group show A Moment In Time at VA Art Gallery, curated by Varuna Arvind and Upasana Asrani, Ami uses photography to record them for posterity. “This was given to my father by his friend in the ’80s, but they date back to much earlier. There was also a book that was part-recipe and part-stamp book. For the stamps, I also used a magnifying lens to show the details, especially the texture of the paper,” she says.