Photo-Attractions: An Indian Dancer, an American Photographer, and a German Camera

In Spring 1938, an Indian dancer named Ram Gopal and an American writer-photographer named Carl Van Vechten collaborated for a photoshoot in New York City. Their interactions reveal fascinating insights into colonial histories, race, sexuality, and transcultural desires, challenging the Orientalist gaze. This study explores the ways in which Gopal co-authored the photos, creating a "photo-erotic" triangle between the American photographer, Indian dancer, and German camera. The photographs provide a rare record of intercultural exchanges during the interwar years, highlighting the pleasure taken in cultural difference that continues to resonate today.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 270 pages
Publication date: 30 November 2022
Publisher: Rutgers University Press

In the spring of 1938, an Indian dancer named Ram Gopal and an American writer-photographer named Carl Van Vechten converged in New York City for a captivating photoshoot. Ram Gopal, a trailblazing figure in classical Indian dance, and Van Vechten, renowned as a prominent white patron of the African-American movement known as the Harlem Renaissance, brought together their unique desires and aspirations. The resulting photographs, captured by Van Vechten's Leica camera, offer a rare and captivating glimpse into a previously overlooked chapter of transcultural exchanges during the interwar years of the early 20th century.

Art historian Ajay Sinha utilizes these hitherto unpublished photographs and extensive archival research to delve into provocative and thought-provoking questions about photographic technology, colonial histories, race, sexuality, and transcultural desires. He challenges the notion that Gopal was merely objectified by Van Vechten's Orientalist gaze, instead exploring how the Indian dancer co-authored the photos. In Sinha's interpretation, Van Vechten's New York studio becomes a bustling crossroads of world cultures, where a "photo-erotic" triangle is formed between the American photographer, the Indian dancer, and the German camera.

Photo-Attractions, a groundbreaking study of global modernity, seamlessly weaves scholarship on American photography, literature, race, and sexual economies into conversation with work on South Asian visual culture, dance, and gender. Through these remarkable historical documents, it uncovers the enduring pleasure derived from cultural difference, a theme that continues to resonate in our contemporary world.

Dimension: 254 x 178 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781978830486