Life in Bombay through the lens of Raghubir Singh at Jhaveri Contemporary

Source Stir World by Chahna Tank
Running from March 12 – April 25, 2026, the solo exhibition brings together a selection of works by the Indian photographer who captured the rhythms of urban life in a city constantly reshaping itself—in colour. Shot on 35mm film, these raw and vivid images register what Singh described as “the several forces working in Bombay,” in a conversation with British writer V. S. Naipaul for his book Bombay: Gateway of India (1994). “It is a go-ahead city. There is tremendous movement and energy,” he noted. Born in Jaipur into an aristocratic family, Singh was largely a self-taught photographer who was influenced by illustrious figures such as Henri Cartier-Bresson and William Eggleston, as well as Indian visual forms like Rajasthani miniature and Mughal paintings. While he lived and worked across Hong Kong, Paris, London and New York—collaborating with publications including National Geographic, The New York Times, The New Yorker and Time during his prolific career—it was in the streets of India that his photographic practice found its most defining expression, to which he kept returning. Working in colour at a time when black-and-white still dominated the medium, he emerged as an instrumental figure in Indian street photography—a flâneur, meandering around with his camera, trying to capture the polyphony of urban life in cities like Calcutta, Rajasthan, his native state, Varanasi (especially Ganges) and the unreal city that was Bombay.
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What to See During New York’s Asia Art Week

Source Hyperallergic by Rhea Nayyar and Isa Farfan
Nearly 100 20th- and 21st-century works coalesce for Christie’s South Asian Modern and Contemporary Art auction this spring, bringing an explosion of color and culture from the subcontinent and its diaspora. Anchored by Tyeb Mehta’s “Gesture“ (1970), this painting-forward sale brings together quintessential works by Jamini Roy, M.F. Hussein, Satish Gujral, Sheila Makhijani, and Arpita Singh, among others. Cubism, Fauvism, and Minimalism are intertwined with Tantric painting, experimental figuration, and culturally and religiously significant motifs. Catch the five-day preview at the Rockefeller Center before the live sale!
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Raghubir Singh Bombay

Source Ocula
Jhaveri Contemporary is proud to present Raghubir Singh: Bombay, a solo presentation of photographs by the late Raghubir Singh. A pioneer of analogue colour street photography, the exhibition chronicles the city between the late 70s to mid 90s. Singh saw this process as crucial, as much so as the shooting. While his street photography was bound by an element of chance and accident, often demanding a quick response, editing was a way to dwell. Editorial choices helped Singh to, he said, ‘trap the movement on the street, in relationship to...static elements.’ Time too was spent studying colour, contrasts and form. Before the era of digital enhancement and filters, Singh produced images, like Victoria Terminus, Bombay (1991), that pop. His masterly use of colour was essential to expressing India. He explained, ‘The fundamental condition of India...is the cycle of rebirth, in which colour is not just an essential element but also a deep inner source, reaching into the subcontinent’s long and rich past.’
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