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.
All Was Well
April 2015
SO2 - 7 ug / m3
NOx - 50 ug / m3
RSPM ??? 107 ug / m3
"The paradise of the Jacana is one of those ancient tanks, choked with crimson and white flowered lotus, which are at once the wealth and the glory of an Indian village ; wherethe women fill their waterpots and wash their clothes, and the men bathe and the buffaloes wallow and everybody is happy where no thought of microbe and bacillus blows across the placid calm of life, and the Pasteur-Mallie filter is unknown. We arerapidly infecting the people with our own esteem for ugly utilities, and the rusty water-tap is dispossessing the picturesque tank; but there are many left yet in the suburbs of Bombay, though the villages which they once vitalized may have disappeared. And there is one left in our very midst, the Gowalia tank. In such places, if you look for it, you may perhaps see the Jacana gingerly treading the floating leaves."
The Common Birds of Bombay
Page 176-177
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.