Picture-Making through the lens of Gender

In this piece, I will be looking through five photos of my parents starting from their childhood to their first-ever photo as a married couple in a studio. In this process, I will be exploring how gender and geography played a major role in the making of a photograph. Further, these factors have reflected a person’s personality even while being photographed. My mother, Mousumi Roy (earlier, Bhattacharya) was born in Uttar Pradesh’s Kanpur in 1968 and lived her entire life there till her marriage. While my father Abhijit Roy was born in West Bengal’s Kakinara village in 1967 and shifted to Delhi when he was in 7^th grade.

Picture-taking and Picture making are also very gendered. When one sees a photo beyond the technicalities of lighting, framing, and composition and focuses more on how the subject is behaving, one can observe how gendered the photographs are. It is an undeniable fact that the field of photography is filled with gender inequality. However, so is the field of one being photographed. Through this project, as I mentioned, I would be studying the photographs of my parents who have been brought up around the same time. Despite the same timeline, the way my mother has been photographed differs from how my father was photographed. This difference comes from the socio-economic, political, and gendered conditioning rooted in one’s identity.

For instance, to start with here is a photo of my mother clicked in 1971, location- Kanpur. She could be seen seated in this round chair, which was very common back in those days. This photo was taken at a studio in Kanpur. “Back then the camera was not something everyone had. If someone had a camera, it would be a big thing. So photos were also not clicked that often unless there was a special event. It was when I turned 3,” says my mother. Since being clicked was a rare occasion, everyone made sure that the photo being clicked turned out perfect. The subject was thus made to look perfect. Back in those days, as my mother says, the subject was also asked to sit up straight and avoid any lousy position. And these instructions would make the subject conscious which would reflect in the final product. As could also be seen in the photograph, where my mother sits upright, unlike the photos clicked today, her expressions reflect the frustration a child must be under dealing with so many instructions. 

Contrasting the photo of my mother, my father’s photo clicked in the year 1973, in his own house is more lively. Being the zamindars, my father’s family had the privilege that many people back in those days did not. They had their own camera. Thus they had the freedom to experiment with photos that one could not do when getting clicked in a studio. Though only two years gap, the two photos show a great difference, which is a direct product of the socio-economical standing of the two families.

Going further down the timeline in 1985 my mother had just completed her schooling. The photo was clicked in one of her relative’s houses in Lucknow, who owned a camera. Naturally, the photo looks less artificial. 

My mother (in the middle) got this photo clicked with her sister (to her left) and her cousins. The photo also shows how the process of picture-making is gendered, where the women are made to stand, while the man in the photo sits. Furthermore, unmarried women also had neatly tied braids, which, as my mother claims almost became a symbol of an unmarried woman. The women in these photos are again standing rigidly, while the man sits on the chair comfortably. Again, a striking contrast could be seen in my father’s photo, which was taken in the year 1987, just two years apart.

My father, by now had moved to Delhi and had also completed his schooling. He was enrolled in Jamia Millia Islamia for his graduation in Physics. This photo was also clicked in the Jamia hostel. My father (on the extreme right) sits with his friends, while his friends laugh at a joke that was cracked right before the photo was clicked. The photo is not only more natural than the photo of my mother, but it also is a candid one. Clearly shows, how gender plays an essential role in how women were instructed on camera versus how men could just freely pose. The body language in both photos shows a great difference in comfort. Also as I mentioned before, geography played a big role in how photos turned out to be. Delhi being the capital had a higher level of technological penetration, thus even though from the same timeline, my father’s photo has colors in it, while my mother’s does not. 

(mother in the middle, her sister to her left, one of her cousins sits, while the other one stands to her right)

(father to the extreme right, sitting comfortably for the photo with his friends)

Fast-forwarding to 1994, both, my mother and father were now ready to look for their partners, of course, through an arranged-marriage setup. Now it was the time to get their marriage biodata photos clicked. My mother tells how one of her cousins had freshly chopped her hair, and nani (maternal grandmother) had draped my mother into an elegant saree. She was then taken to a studio, where she was instructed as to how to stand, pose and look. Even how to smile. To make her more, as she calls, “lady-like.” While in the case of my father, he just got up one day and decided to get his photo clicked that would be sent for marriage proposals. While my mother was dressed in ethnic clothes so her “sanskar” would show, my father dressed in denim, did not even care much about his hair. While for women it mattered how tall she was, so her full portrait was clicked, for men, it did not matter, which clearly shows in how my father’s photo came out. It was clicked in rush. And not a full-body portrait. It was just clicked, for the sake of it. Without much that went behind the scenes.

(clicked in very similar ways are the marriage bio-data photos of my mother and father, against a blue backdrop, with no headroom, yet very different, very gendered)

These photos are from 1995 from my parents’ wedding and reception. The gendered conditioning is quite visible in these two photos. The photo was clicked (2^nd May 1995) as they both exchanged varmala, my mother looks down and does not meet eyes with her to-be husband, exactly how a “sanskari” wife should be. Whereas, my father looks straight at her, exactly how a man should be – fearless, bold, and “masculine.” Another photo is from their reception, where again, my mother does not look straight into the camera, but rather looks down, and sits timidly, while my father smiles at the camera, sitting comfortably.

(photo from their wedding)

(photo from their reception)

Lastly, this is the first photo they both got clicked as a married couple. By that time, my sister- Torunika Roy was also there. This is a photo from the year 1997, again a very gendered and artificial photo, taken in a studio in Ajmer. Where my mother dresses exactly how an Indian house-wife is supposed to dress- with her bindi, sindhur, mangalsutra, shaka-pola (red and white bangles that Bengali married women wear) and everything visible to show that she has been married off now. She is supposed to look like a “lady,” with her makeup all right, a bright saree, and holding her baby. While my father does not carry any symbol of being wedded, wearing a tie and a suit represents how a man is expected to be - a breadwinner for the household!

(first photo of my parents as a married couple with my sister)

Though a lot has changed over these past years. Having two daughters who have the access to so much that my mother never did have sure made a difference in how women in our house are now conditioned. Both my sister and I make sure to challenge the set norms, but some things still remain deeply rooted. Even though my mother no longer cares to drape a saree for a photo, and no longer thinks it is necessary to wear makeup for a photograph. She has even abandoned most of the “wedded symbols,” but she still chooses to stand for a family photo, as any “sanskari” wife would. But here, my sister and I make sure to balance that out, as I sit next to my father, while my sister stands to accompany my mother, with our two new babies of the family- Pingu and Cookie!

(my mother to the left, right next to her stands my sister, while I sit with Cookie, right next to my father who is holding Pingu in front of a timed selfie camera)