PROBASHI- A Cultural News Magazine Volume 2 Issue 2 | Page 48
Probashi- Invited Article
‘Gol‐mandir’ of Hetampur, district Birbhum, c. 1950. The temple with its
eclectic architecture was almost in ruins when Mukul Dey visited Hetampur.
It had a number of plaques with erotic and secular motifs plastered on the
exterior of its sanctum sanctorum.
combination.6 He printed his
photos to primarily three distinct
sizes. First, individual contact
prints were generated on gaslight
paper7, and selected frames were
pasted with gummed paper‐hinge
on a sheet of ordinary foolscap
paper—about eight to ten such
contact prints were pasted to a
sheet. I think this method was
adopted to take down little notes
adjacent to individual frames,
with clear indication of the final
enlargement area in the frame.
Second, from the selected
contact prints he would make
enlargements of about six inches
high by six inches wide, and paste
them on pieces of thin sturdy
pieces of cardboard cut to size.
While I am not exactly sure why
he did this, one explanation that
comes to mind is that Dey
probably wanted to review the
worth of each frame prior to final
enlargement. The cardboard
backing must have protected the
prints from the damages caused
accessories, which further prove
his involvement with the entire
monochrome
photographic
process.
In 1949, in a slim little ten‐page
monograph self‐published from
Santiniketan,
Mukul
Dey
recorded: “First I took small
snapshots with my tiny camera8.
I was amazed to see the results.
Then I got a bigger camera9 and
then a still larger one from a
friend10. Thus I was well
equipped and the more I saw,
the more I was convinced that
wonderful treasures are lying in
the jungle and rotting away. I
photographed several hundreds
of art objects, temples,
terracottas,
and
unique
decorative pieces which reveal a
great art of the past.11”
by frequent handling. Most of Purely from a photographic
these cardboard mounted prints viewpoint and the possibility of
were labelled indicating the generating superior quality of
location where the photograph images out of this medium, this
was taken. Finally, out of these gradual shift from a smaller
frames enlargements of the format to larger format
dimension of twelve inches by equipment is of tremendous
fifteen inches were made on importance. It clearly shows that
glossy bromide paper. Since Dey was serious in his efforts to
Mukul Dey mostly used medium generate still better images out of
format cameras, many of these his project and arduous travel to
locations—he
was
enlargements