Vestiges — Vishesh Anand | Photographer / Creative Director

VISHESH ANAND

Photographer
Creative Director

PROJECTS

Vestiges
Kabzā / कब्जा
Time Moves Slow
A Bird in the Hand

VESTIGES

How do you photograph something that’s not there? A world eroded by the winds of culture, a history buried by the hands of time.

Bandel. Chinsurah. Chandannagar. Serampore. Four towns in Bengal, nestled on the Hooghly, brought together by a mixed colonial past. As the Portuguese, the Dutch, the French and the Danish, have all once sailed up the river and carved out a piece of the land to set up their trading posts.On my way into Bandel, my first stop, my eyes were peeled on the road—scanning for the leftovers of the European settlers.

Historical building, architecture, texts, monuments, everything, anything... But not much remains. But then I encountered Father Thomas at the Bandel Church, built by the Portuguese in 1599 as their first import into the town.

But then I encountered Father Thomas at the Bandel Church, built by the Portuguese in 1599 as their first import into the town. He told me that he loves taking his lunch from the Church’s terrace. And sometimes he can see the hull of a sunken ship rising above the tides of the river, a remnant of the war between a Mughal ruler and the Portuguese.

I had to find out for myself.

Down by the riverside, I found some fishermen—who had just returned with their catch for the day. I asked them about this. They looked at each other, shrugged and laughed. One of them turned to me and said, “Aisa kuch nahi hai, Abb hum hi hai yaha.” “I don’t know about that, but now it’s just us in the river here.” The interaction reframed my inquiry into the history of these spaces.

I was no longer looking for the markers of a colonial past, but its vestiges.

MAIL / INSTAGRAM