Abstract
When Bengalis talk about Kolkata, they do so with bright eyes; they view the city as the undisputed cultural capital of India. In the West, however, Kolkata had the reputation of a black hole, a cesspool; historian Jeffrey N. Dupée asserts that, for 20th century travel writers, the metropolis was the “quintessential urban horror story”. During numerous stays in Kolkata, the photographer Samuel Schütz and the sound documentarist Thomas Kaiser explored this chasm between self-perception and external view. With his pinhole camera, Schütz photographed streets, crossings, workshops and the ferry station at the old Kali temple at Kalighat; Kaiser asked the city’s inhabitants about their lives, dreams and memories.
Kaiser, Thomas