Collections

Bhrama Swaroop Snatak moved to Delhi in the 1950s from the village of Mahua near Aligarh in Uttar Pradesh. He worked as a Hindi and Sanskrit teacher at Quetta DAV School in Nizamuddin. The collection includes changing facets of Quetta DAV school and neighbourhood places of Nizamuddin.

Christophe Fanjat was a French Scholar who lived in Delhi during the 1980’s. His collection includes photographs of Central Delhi and Connaught Place that he explored during his stay in Delhi.

The Haveli at Ali Manzil was home to three sisters, Hamida Sultan, Khujistan Sultan and Akhtar Ara, who provided education to underprivileged Muslim children in the immediate aftermath of partition in Delhi.

Gossi Soto was a Mexican journalist who came to India post-independence to study in Miranda House. She later worked and lived in India as well. Her collection includes her life as a student surrounding student politics, theater and cultural events that occurred in Delhi University campuses in the 1950’s. Her interaction with political leaders and artists such as Indira Gandhi, Jawahar Lal Nehru, Satish Gujral and foreign dignitaries can be traced in her memoirs and photographs.

Jan Friese was a German scholar who came to Delhi to complete his master’s from Delhi School of Economics in the 1960’s. During his course of career, he went on to become a lecturer at Kirori Mal College and later a journalist in the Press Department of German Embassy. As a journalist, he also covered the 1974 Emergency. The photographs donated by Jan are from the 1970’s-1980’s which showcases the political drift in the country and his family life during those years. His wife, Afzal Friese was involved in setting up of the Delhi Society for the Welfare of Special Children in Okhla, of which some of the photographs are from.

Lala Narain Prasad (1924-2016) was a resident of Haveli Haider Quli, Chandni Chowk, Delhi. Narain Prasad got his first camera in 1938 at the age of 14 and went on to photograph the changing face of Delhi and its residents until the 1980’s. Lala Narain Prasad’s carefully dated and captioned collections allow us to see the life in Delhi touching themes of childhood, youth, student activism, and street life, formative years of Indraprastha school and college, and so on. In addition to being a photographer, he was also a meticulous collector and record keeper of his family's photographs, leaving us an archive which has allowed us to see the city in the period 1880-1930 through studio and family portraits.

Mumtaz Ahmed is known as an eminent swimmer in the Okhla neighbourhood. His photographs throws light on the changing relationship over the years of people living in Okhla with the river Yamuna.

This collection was acquired during Centre’s oral history project at Nizamuddin in 2015 brings forth the account that goes beyond its popular perception of being known a Sufi Shrine. The photographs donated by the residents highlight tales of its expanding urban landscape, market places, community centres and baraat ghars and so forth.

The collection comprises of photographs donated by residents of Shadi Khampur during Centre’s oral history project in 2013. The collection narrates story of Shadi-Khampur area from a village space to an urban locality through the photographs donated by its diverse population; varying from the festivals celebrated by Gihara Samaj, to the early hunting stories of Najafgarh Canal.