Mumbai in 25 frames

It was a stint at a local newspaper in his hometown that uncovered a love and aptitude for photography in Peter Bialobrzeski. Over the years, this German documentary photographer travelled extensively – following wherever his heart lead.

His first trip to India – a short stay of just a few days – happened in 1980. Last year, he returned to capture and immortalise through his lens Mumbai, a megapolis that becomes home to about 500 new families, most of which are absorbed by the city’s slums, every day. His images now hang in the halls of the Goethe-Institute at the Max Mueller Bhavan.

In just 25 frames, Peter, with his eye for urban spaces, has managed to capture the essence and very pulse of the city that derives at least a part of its identity from its architecture. His collection, titled Mumbai Suburbia: Urban Environment in Crisis, depicts Mumbai as we know it, in all its glory – densely packed streets lined with skyscrapers, slums and derelict structures dotted by billboards.

“Suburbia is a subject that hasn’t been explored in India so I thought of capturing those landscapes,” the photographer explains.

To the layman, the images may simply be symbolic of the emerging urban Indian condition, but for Peter, it sparks a conversation about urban management and city planning. “The increasing concentration of global flows in urban centres has exacerbated the inequalities and spatial divisions between social classes. So the urbanism of equality in an inequitable economic condition requires deeper consideration,” he says.

As you walk past the photographs, you may recognise a familiar place, one that you’ve walked by a hundred a times over but never really seen in the same light as Peter. “My images unfold the city’s every day along with the promise of a future that’s still being formed,” the photographer explains further.

Peter Bialobrzeski

Peter highlights the deeply conflicted structure within which poorer communities managed to survive, thrive even. His images are simultaneously provocative and sensual, causing the viewer to pause and reflect. “The beauty inherent in these compositions is that space for ambiguity,” he explains. You might think of the city’s slums as a ready source of visual material, but for Peter, the setting serves to constantly provoke new thoughts.

The beautiful imagery that captures the ruptured urban landscape compels you to see the city from his perspective.