People of India

Interesting exhibition at the Herbert Art Gallery and Museum in Coventry of photographs by Jason Scott Tilley.

The show looked at three groups of photographs Tilley made over a ten year period travelling around India taking portraits of the people he met. He was inspired to do this by the work of his grandfather Bert Scott, who had been a press photographer in India before partition.

The pictures were very tender and showed an involvement with his subjects. There were a set of various beggars who he got to know over a period of time and a number where people came up and asking him to include them. I liked the fact they were show with an album of his train tickets.

These pictures were twinned with a selection of work from a Victorian publication “The people of India” which attempted to get a better understanding of the people in that part of the British Empire. The text with the pictures showed the assumptions and attitudes of the time.

Finally there was also work from Bert Scott’s collection including his press work and photographs of friends.