by Koyel Chatterjee

Created on: June 27, 2008   Last Updated: June 28, 2008

SENT A LETTER
By Dayanita Singh
Steidl
Price: $90

The celebrated Indian photojournalist, Dayanita Singh's latest offering, Sent a Letter is a unique slip-cased set of seven very small and intimate accordion-folded pocket photo journals recounting her travels/journeys throughout India at different points in her life. Bombay, Devigarh, Padmanabhapuram, Allahabad, Calcutta, Varanasi and Nony Singh are the seven jewels of this collection.

Sent a letter to my friend, on the way he dropped it. Someone picked it up and put it in his pocket', printed on the hard-cover box gives the impression that each book was made by Dayanita as a gift for a friend, serving as a souvenir of the time spent with that person or of a time when that person was on her mind.The viewer is also made to feel that she creates two copies of each book - of which one is sent to the friend (that is dropped on the way) while the other remains with her.

Each book carries a minimum of 14 and a maximum of 27 B&W photographs. Like her last small book Go Away Closer, there is no text or caption with the photos to guide the viewer in this collection. May be Singh expects her audience to do some homework and decipher the hidden messages that these images conceal or perhaps wants them to have the liberty to interpret, as they want.

Six of these seven books have a distinct flavor of the historic past of the cities they represent. It's evident from Singh's repertoire that she's entirely in love with the old images and is therefore, reluctant in capturing the changing face of these Indian cities, brought about by the seeds of modernism & globalization.

The seventh book Nony Singh is completely different from the rest and is given a distinguishably darker cover. It carries a series of skillfully taken photos by Dayanita's mother Nony Singh. This collection of her family photos also provides a sneak peek at the growing years of Dayanita.

Dayanita, 47, born and brought up in Delhi, has been making small photo journals of her travels across different Indian cities for quite some time now. Several of her works have been showcased in different museums and shows in India and abroad. But this is the first time, her works are being published in this format globally.

Allahabad opens with an image of two men in what appears to be a museum dedicated to Jawaharlal Nehru. The book progresses through different rooms that may have been his sitting room, bedroom and library. One spread of two photographs shows visitors entrapped behind

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