Mumbai-based art patron Saloni Doshi has been collecting artworks since the age of 23. Two decades into her collecting journey, she felt a deep desire to make her art more accessible to the public. The 44-year-old patron took a step in this direction last year when she showcased works of contemporary photography from her archive in the exhibition, The Right To Look Part I. Following its success, the exhibition’s second edition opened to the public in Mumbai earlier this month.

While the first edition focused on figurative and performance photography, the second edition, curated by Amit Kumar Jain, is all about landscape and abstract photography from Doshi’s collection. “Photography is a unique medium, which beautifully captures moments that pass us by. I started my collection with photographs, buying them extensively very early on,” says Doshi.

As a first-generation art collector, Doshi’s initial hurdle was making her family understand why she chose it as a calling. For her, it started as a passion, but it didn’t take long for it to become a vocation. “I was in my early 20s, and at that time it was not a profession that people had heard of. So, it was a difficult beginning,” she adds.

In 2009, Doshi converted a part of her warehouse space in South Mumbai to launch Space118 studio. She had a simple reason—to provide the one thing that artists often don’t have access to in urban areas, which is space. Over the years, the space has hosted 450 artists as part of residency programmes for budding artists.

The Right To Look Part II , Space 118’s first exhibition this year, dwells deeper into the world of photography. The showcased works are rooted in historical traditions and contemporary practices, enabling people to reflect on spatial relations. The photos capture places of comfort, those of disarray—a moment of disquiet where the natural world collides with sprawling concrete urban jungles, the exhibition brochure explains. It also makes people ask poignant questions, such as what happens to the places we leave behind.

The exhibition is divided into five rooms, wherein the photos are bound together by a theme. In the first studio, The Promised Land, people will get to see works such as Raghu Rai’s Self Portrait, Mumbai (2019) and Madhya Pradesh (1982), Sohrab Hura’s River (2005) and Ketaki Sheth’s Man Under Flyover (2015), among others. The theme refers to the land that people inherit from their forefathers; land that waits for us, always and forever, says Doshi. “It’s interesting to see how Amit has made sense of works that I have bought over 15 years and presented them under a theme,” she adds.

The passage of time is explored through clocks and places in studio two, A Crack In The Surface. For instance, there is Raqs Media Collective’s Sleep Clock (2018), a print with humour about the passing of time and its effect on various psychological states of being, and Priyank Gothwal’s Public Clocks series, which documents actual clocks of Mumbai. Raghu Rai’s 1973 work, Jantar Mantar, Delhi, shows how the place was before, urging one to reflect on how times have changed.

One of the interesting works in studio three, Stuck In A Moment, is from Pakistani photographer Bani Abidi’s The VIP’s Waiting Room (2009) series, wherein photos examine the interiors of buildings. Doshi explains that there is a lack of doors and no clear entry or exit point in photos, which leaves people in a dilemma as they wonder for how long they have to wait. 

The exhibition raises an important question about ‘what happens when nature no longer nurtures us’ through the works displayed in studio four, The Wasteland. Doshi says the works are an artistic enquiry into where people have taken the planet. “For instance, Arun Kumar HG’s Landscape (2011), shows cities that have grown out, trees that have grown beyond space, and bridges that have taken over spaces. Our cities have become a wasteland and we have to question the exploitation that’s happening in the environment,” she explains.

Other works such as Puja Vaish’s From Memories of Under Construction (2012) and Gigi Scaria’s In Conversation (2010) push people to reflect on the receding natural landscape that’s being overtaken by a consumeristic culture.

Talking about the theme for the last studio, A Light Through The Cracks, Doshi says the purpose was to leave people hopeful and reassured. It includes Surekha’s The Whispering Silence Photo-Action (2010) where people can see a lush tree braving its odds against in an unsporting environment and Neha Choksi’s Lone Orange (2008), where a single orange atop a barren tree shows resilience.

One of the main aims of this exhibition is to expose people to contemporary works, Doshi says. “It’s also about educating people about all kinds of photography, introducing them to the medium and seeing what kind of photography connects with people,” she adds. A book, based on the collection, will also be published.

The Right To Look – II is open to the public from January 11 to March 16 and is on view at Space118, Mumbai from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., including Sundays. 

SUPERIOR — Can someone ever truly “play” with a fox? I don’t know, but I came close on Saturday morning.

It was Jan. 13, and when I opened the curtains I was glad to see that the inches of snow that we were promised never actually materialized. The wind whipped the snow that we did have on the ground up into the air. You could tell it was going to be one of those cold days.

I sat down on my couch and flipped on the TV. I was a couple of minutes into the NFL pregame coverage on ESPN when something caught my eye outside. It looked like a dog was running down the middle of the road.

It was alone and not on a leash — which I thought was weird. Then another creature joined in running down the road. Upon further inspection, I realized they were a pair of red foxes.

My immediate thought was to grab my camera, but when I returned to the window, they were gone. I sat down and went back to the pregame show. Less than five minutes went by and I noticed a car driving by very slowly.

So I looked a little closer and realized the foxes were sitting in the backyard of the house across the street. I hit my car starter and grabbed my camera bag, while I tried to keep an eye on the pair as I put on my boots. I’ve photographed foxes before and know that I might only get one shot.

Apparently, things were different on Saturday. They must have been in a good mood. I got in the car and turned out of the alley as they slowly walked down the block to another alley. I moved the car very slowly down the alley as I rolled down my window. The first fox quickly jetted away from me across the street into a yard and I lost sight of it.

The second fox, well, clearly liked the camera. As I followed the pair while they ran through snowy yards, the second fox seemed to be playing with me. It would wait until I got a couple of nice shots, and then run out of sight, only to pop out again when I looked lost.

While one fox was totally out of sight, this one would walk along the sidewalk while I drove alongside it. It seemed as though it was even posing for me. It would wander into the nice light and wait for me to snap a few frames.

After about 10 minutes of playing paparazzi to the foxes, it was time for me to go. I didn’t want to wear out my welcome, and truth be told, it was getting really cold in my car. Hopefully, I’ll have another run-in with the fox duo when it warms up a little.

Jed Carlson joined the Superior Telegram in February 2001 as a photographer. He grew up in Willmar, Minnesota. He graduated from Ridgewater Community College in Willmar, then from Minnesota State Moorhead with a major in mass communications with an emphasis in photojournalism.