Photo-Attractions: An Indian Dancer, an American Photographer, and a German CameraIn 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 Art historian Ajay Sinha uses these hitherto unpublished photographs and archival research to raise provocative and important questions about photographic technology, colonial histories, race, sexuality and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 In these remarkable historical documents, it locates the pleasure taken in cultural difference that still resonates today. |
Contents
Prelude | |
The Photo Studio | |
The Dancer | |
The Photographer | |
The Camera | |
PhotoDance | |
Afterimages | |
Acknowledgments | |
Notes | |
Bibliography | |
Other editions - View all
Photo-Attractions: An Indian Dancer, an American Photographer, and a German ... Ajay Sinha No preview available - 2022 |
Photo-Attractions: An Indian Dancer, an American Photographer, and a German ... Ajay Sinha No preview available - 2022 |
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Adorno African American Anna May Wong April 21 archives artists autobiography backdrop ballet Bangalore Barthes Beinecke Rare Book Bharatanatyam Black Book and Manuscript calls Carl Van Vechten chapter Cheng choreography Cinema City close-up collaboration color Coomaraswamy costumes Covarrubias cultural D’Aguir dancer dancer’s body darkroom Delhi Epstein fabric fantasy figure film Garbo gaze German camera gesture glamorous Gopal wears Harlem Renaissance Hindu Hollywood homoerotic human imagine Indian classical dance Indian dance Janta jazz Jerome Robbins Kathak Kathakali Kellner Kirstein Krishnan Leica Madras Manuscript Library Mercedes de Acosta Meri modern modernist Museum Mysore Nataraja Orientalism Orientalist painting Paris photographer’s picture portrait pose racial Ram Gopal representations Rhythm Salomé sculpture social stage Steichen subjects Ted Shawn temple theater traditions twentieth century Uday Shankar University Press Vechten Papers Vechten Trust Vechten’s photographs Vechten’s studio visual Walter Benjamin writes Yale University York photo shoot York Public Library