In the 1930s, when photography in India was largely confined to formal portraits and studio images, two young women from Kolkata were quietly redefining the art. Debalina Mazumder (1919–2012) and Manobina Roy (1919–2001), identical twin sisters, began experimenting with cameras as teenagers, capturing everyday life with an intimacy and spontaneity that would later be recognized as pioneering candid photography.
A new exhibition, “Twin Sisters with Cameras,” curated by Sabeena Gadihoke, Mallika Leuzinger and Tapati Guha-Thakurta, revisits their photographic lives, tracing a journey that stretched from 1930s Ramnagar near Varanasi to the vibrant social worlds of Calcutta and Bombay, and eventually to evocative glimpses of Europe in the 1960s.
An Eye for the Unscripted
The sisters’ earliest experiments played with light and shadow, turning familiar spaces into dramatic compositions. Unlike the rigid portraits of their era, their images captured unguarded moments: friends reading, children at play, women lost in thought. These photographs, often taken in and around their homes, revealed a striking modern sensibility.
Amateurs With a Global Gaze
Though they remained outside the professional circuit, Mazumder and Roy brought a cosmopolitan outlook to their work. Their travels in Europe during the 1960s produced photographs that stood apart for their perspective — not tourist snapshots, but observant, carefully composed images that echoed their lifelong engagement with form and detail.
A Legacy Reconsidered
On October 19, curators Gadihoke and Leuzinger will lead a public talk, “The Curious and Cosmopolitan Worlds of Amateur Photography,” examining the sisters’ archives and recorded interviews. The discussion aims to situate their contributions within the broader history of Indian photography — one often dominated by male professionals.
By placing the twin sisters back in the frame, the exhibition not only honors their artistry but also asks a larger question: how many other women’s creative legacies remain hidden in family albums, waiting to be rediscovered?