An Interpretive Auto/Biographical Reading of Studio-Posed Photographs: Telling My Mother’s Life in Colonial and Post-Colonial India

I “tell” my mother’s life in photographs of her—specifically those taken in studios—but as more than a chronological life story. My intent is to rediscover the person that she was, or was not, but chose to present. A deeply personal as well as feminist sensibility inspires this essay, to give voice and substance to a long silence. As colonial India approached independence, Ma successfully availed of opportunities for women to study medicine. But she would confront, in her circumstances and in her time, obstacles to her aspirations, and she died in her mid-forties. I draw from historical research on photography and British initiatives to train Indian women in medicine, as well as other “texts,” to provide context and dimension for my reading of the photographs. I conclude with other possible narratives (cultural, religious, and philosophical) that contribute to my endeavors, a half-century after her death.