Kolkata Calcutta is a superb collection of classic black and white, and color photographs taken of one the Worlds most enthralling and mysterious cities as revealed through the lens of photographer Fionn Reilly.
Inspired by the films of Kolkata’s celebrated director Satyajit Ray and the great Indian photographer Raghubir Singh, Reilly’s images capture an intense city that exudes a true sense of soul, haunted by it’s ghosts of empire. Primary among this volume are Reilly’s candid shots of everyday people in pursuit of their everyday business, religious and cultural icons, historical architecture, and open spaces.
Kolkata, the “City of Joy”, is a city that never ceases to amaze. Reilly’s images bear witness to this truly unique and marvelous city.
Queen Victoria rustled about in silks as dark as the soot on which her Empire was maintained. Unlike an insect, it is black that draws my eye. Black is the color of shadows, and in Calcutta the shadows of the past cast a Victorian darkness in contrast to the blinding tropical sun that erodes those elements of its past and is fuel to its future. Cast in bronze The Old Empress now patiently watches that future unfold. When I photograph I am observing form but not without a sense of time. Here in the 21st century, photographing Kolkata in monochrome accentuates those contrasts and petrifies the living chaos, revealing an older more timeless Calcutta.
I was told as a child that my bedroom looked like the Black Hole of Calcutta. Perhaps that is what originally attracted me to the place.