#  Talk, “Transcultural Attractions: American Photographs of an Indian Dancer” Professor Ajay Sinha 

 



####  calendar\_today Date and Time 

 **November 16, 2018** 

 04:30PM - 04:30PM EST 

####  pin\_drop Location 

 **CGIS South 153**  



 

 



 

 Arts @ Mittal Institute Seminar co-sponsored with Dept. History of Art & Architecture

   
“Transcultural Attractions: American Photographs of an Indian Dancer”  
Ajay Sinha, Professor of Art History, Mount Holyoke College

   
Chair: Jinah Kim, Gardner Cowles Associate Professor of History of Art & Architecture  
Faculty Director, Arts @ Mittal Institute

   ![mittal](/sites/g/files/omnuum4426/files/styles/hwp_1_1__960x960_scale/public/history-artsarchitecture/files/mittal.jpg?itok=aix9o4G2) 

 

   
In the Spring of 1938, an Indian dancer, Ram Gopal, posed in a variety of fantastical costumes  
for the American photographer, Carl Van Vechten, in New York City. Studying over 100 largesize  
photographs resulting from the photoshoot, the lecture builds an illustrated story of their  
mutual fascination and exchange, triggered by the camera. The remarkable images, now part  
of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscripts Library, Yale University, show traces of the myriad,  
transcultural relations being performed during the photoshoot. They reveal an interplay of  
differing investments in the image when we ask: What does the Indian dancer show the  
camera; what does the American photographer see through his lens? Their visual exploration  
helps us elaborate on an underrepresented history of exchanges between the cultural worlds of  
India and the U.S. in early-20th century.

   
Friday, November 16, 4:30pm CGIS South 153



 

 



 

 

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