Refocusing the Lens: Pranlal K. Patel’s Photographs of Women at Work in Ahmedabad curated by Professor of History Lisa Trivedi and Assistant Professor of Art Robert Knight opened at City Hall in Sacramento California on Feb 6.
Smriti Srinivas, director of the Middle East/South Asia Program at UC Davis, says the exhibit "draws attention to the everyday spaces of Ahmadabad city and the significant role of women’s labor in it at a politically important phase of the Indian independence movement and is part of the South Asian Without Borders Initiative of ME/SA."
The collection, originally exhibited at the Wellin Museum of Art in 2014, contains over three dozen photographs originally commissioned by a Gujarati women’s social reform organization in 1937. The exhibition was brought to Sacramento through the cooperation of the Sacramento Metropolitan Arts Commission and the University of California, Davis, Center for Middle East/South Asia Program.
Joining Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg were the Honorable Consul General of San Francisco for India Venkatesan Ashok and Associate Vice Provost for Academic Programs for Global Affairs at UC Davis, Ermias Kebreab. Professor of History at UC Davis Sudipta Sen commented that he was “…delighted to bring an exhibition that not only engaged the University community, but also city of Sacramento. It was particularly exciting to see so many in Sacramento’s South Asian community in attendance at the opening events.”
