Godrej Typewriter Factory, Bombay

Sooni Taraporevala

1984, printed 2016 · Inkjet print · Photographs

Taraporevala is a photographer, filmmaker, and screenwriter best known for writing Salaam Bombay (1988), Mississippi Masala (1991), and The Namesake (2006), all directed by Mira Nair. In the early 1980s, Taraporevala began photographing Mumbai’s small but vibrant Parsi community, to which her family belongs. Followers of the ancient Zoroastrian religion, Parsis arrived in India more than a millenium ago after fleeing persecution in Persia. They grew to be a small but influential minority that includes prominent industrialists such as the Tata family, who played a major role in the modernization of Mumbai. Taraporevala’s photographs offer a rare insider’s view of Parsi public and domestic life and private rituals. Here, a conscientious Parsi employee in the Godrej typewriter factory in Mumbai carefully tests the click of a typewriter’s keys as his colleagues tease him for working too hard.

Artist

Sooni Taraporevala

Date

1984, printed 2016

Medium

Inkjet print

Department

Photographs

Credit line

The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation Fund, through Joyce and Robert Menschel, 2016