Mumbai North is a collection black and white - photographs taken 15,000 ft above sea level between December 2014 and November 2015 of Mumbai's suburbs by photographer Robert D Stephens.
After the success of his two previous exhibitions, 'Mumbai Articles' (2014) and 'Madras Transit' (Aug 2015) were, Stephens offers an alternate lens into the urban geography, landscape and sprawl of the city's suburbs with Mumbai North.
One of the unique aspects of this photograph is that it is accompanied by a record of air pollution levels on the corresponding day, as measured by the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board as well as extracts from antiquarian books related to Mumbai, dating back to the late 1800s.
Birds of Bombay
April2015
SO2 - 9 ug / m3
NOx - 102 ug / m3
RSPM ??? 73 ug / m3
"Again, what are the Birds of Bombay ? Imagine one undertaking to describe the human inhabitants of Bombay. I am told that the Czar of Russia has eight hundred subjects in our island. I suppose that the Ameer of Afghanistan has many more, to say nothing of the Khan of Khelat and the Akhund of Swat. The heathen Chinee is not scarce, and I have seen the Jap, there are certainly Persians and Turks and Egyptians and Negroesand Burmans and Malays and Jews of several varieties and Armenians; and every nation in Europe is represented. In short, what country is there of which one can say with any confidence that there is not one native of it in Bombay ? Franz Joseph Landperhaps. And the case is pretty much the same with the feathered population. Bombay has of course its own peculiar resident avifauna; but it lies between the Indian continent on the one hand and the ocean on the other, and receives contributions fromboth. A storm at any time may toss the Frigate Bird or the Booby on our shores, and a misguided Hornbill may make its appearance on Malabar Hill. Then there is a host of birds of passage which regularly visit us every cold season, or drop in on us en passant, as quails drop on board of a P. and O. steamer on its way through the Mediterranean. And last, but by no means least as an element of perplexity, there are at all times escaped captives from the cages in the Crawford Market, which wander about the island in vagabondage until the crows kill them, or settle down and make themselves comfortable among us."
The Common Birds of Bombay
Page 3-4
E.H.A.
1901
Robert D. Stephens is a Principal at RMA Architects, Mumbai. His passions include the art of building and constructing beauty through visual, literary, and cinematic imagery. In 2013 he co-produced a feature film with India's first You Tube star, Wilbur Sargunaraj, entitled "Simple Superstar".
About Mumbai North
Aerial Photographs of Mumbai's Suburbs by Robert D. Stephens
Click links below to see his other collections:
Mumbai Articles Madras Transit After the success of Mumbai Articles, Stephen's contemporary black and white, aerial photographs of Mumbai city, photographer Robert D Stephens turns his attentions to the surburbs of Mumbai. This January, he brings us Mumbai North, an urban portrait collection of suburban geography, featuring black and white photographs taken 15,000 ft above sea level between December 2014 and November 2015. Suburbs documented range from Nalasopara to Bhiwandi, Vikhroli to Aarey Colony, Bandra to Kandivali, and more.