HISTORY HOUR
XAVIER CENTRE OF HISTORICAL RESEARCH
Cordially invites you to a talk / presentation / discussion
READING INTO GOAN FAMILY PHOTOGRAPHS
by
Dr Savia Viegas
at
Xavier Centre of Historical Research
Alto Porvorim
Friday, 17th August 2007 - 5. 30 pm
Contacts:
Tel: 2417772 ; 2414971
deliom at dataone.in
After its invention in 1839, photography travelled rapidly to the colonies
either through imperial initiatives or through the efforts of travelling
photographers. Photographers were active in Goa by 1861 shooting individual
and family portraits. Around four or five photographic establishments
sprang up in Nova Goa in the early nineteenth century. They were Souza &
Paul, Neurenkar, Saldanha and Ganesh, while in Mapuca, a city on the
north-western extremity of Goa, the photographic establishment of Reis da
Costa ruled supreme. Margao, the commercial hub of Goa, had its first
photography studio set up by G. Antão only in 1917 followed by Lords,
Mauzo, and Lorenz among others.
From the perspective of post colonial thinking, nineteenth-century
photographs have been analysed and dissected to reveal how they function as
'an influential form of orientalist discourse'. Vidya Dehejia argues that
there is no such thing as an innocent historical eye. Photographs of India
by early British photographers certainly reveal much about the world of
India; but they reveal to an equal degree British attitudes towards the
world.
Interestingly, Goan photographs reveal to borrow a phrase from Dehejia, Goan
attitudes to themselves and to the world. Dr Savia Viegas will make a visual
presentation on family portraits as biographies.
Dr Savia Viegas was Reader in Indian History at KC College, of the
University of Mumbai. She studied at the University of Mumbai. Her areas of
specialisation are Indian art, Photography, Museums and Gender History. She
has been awarded several Fellowships to research on areas of her
specialisation. Her papers, articles and reviews have appeared in the
following Western and Indian Academic journals - Sixteenth Century Journal
(Ann Arbor), Teaching South Asia (University of North Dakota), Countermedia,
Humanscape, Sunday Review, Goa Today, Mirror, Indian Express Sunday
Magazine, Sunday Observer, Herald Review, Illustrated Weekly of India and
Times of India. She published a novel entitled Tales from the Attic
(2007). Presently she is working on completion of photography study
entitled The Family Archive; and also on a second novel entitled In the Hour
of Eclipse. Dr Viegas heads a village based organization called Saxtti.
It has three main branches. Saxtti works to impart creative learning for
children through Saxtti Kids, revival and promotion of traditional craft
practices through Saxtti Art and promoting a film culture in the villages
though Saxtti Films.
