Outside In: Bartholomew’s Window

Text by Huzan Tata. Images courtesy the photographer and Thomas Erben Gallery.

Delve into photographer Pablo Bartholomew’s life through his monochrome images

When New Delhi-born Pablo Bartholomew got expelled from high school in the 1970s, he didn’t while way time at home, but set out with his camera capturing life around him. The result of these works is Outside In – a solo show of the photographer’s monochromes – a selection of photos from his life in what were then Calcutta, Bombay and Delhi.

His parents, friends, locales, and self-portraits too, are a part of the gallery selection. Says the press note for the show, ‘The images…are immediately recognisable as part of a certain documentary tradition…where a marginalised group is seen, candidly and uncompromisingly, through the eye of an insider….Turbulence mingles with lethargy, grime with transcendent light….with the photographer pushing his medium towards its limits.’

Outside In is on display at Thomas Erben Gallery, New York (526, West 26th Street, 4th floor) until June 20, 2015.