Finding Space For Love In Bombay

My idea of love in Bombay is an extension of my idea of Bombay itself—of being one amongst others, of understanding and empathy. When I started out, it was merely a thing for me to do, to photograph couples locked in embrace, or staring out at sea, or clutching at each other to stay afloat in a sea of other couples. It was only later that I realised that I may be onto something larger with this series.

In the couples I encountered across the city, and in their comfort in being intimate in public, there lay something that spoke of more than private passion. Incidents of moral policing where lovers face the brunt of a conservative and regressive society are common. In such times, the lovers, in expressing their love unabashedly in public, have become symbols of resilience, rebellion, and even a sense of civic passion.

This series, for me, is as much about the city of Bombay as it is about love. In a city continuously grappling for space, lovers have found their own pockets of expression jostling against one another. There are traces of love all over the city. Sometimes, it greets one directly, in the countless bodies out at sea during low tide at Bandra Bandstand or the merging bodies in a crowded local train.

Sometimes, these traces are subtler—in the form of a gesture or a look. This work is about all these traces of love in the city.

Love in Bombay is a secret about a secret. A secret that has no space to dwell indoors and has thus spilt out into the city.

Anurag Banerjee is an independent photographer from Shillong based between his hometown and Mumbai

(This appeared in the print as 'Love in Bombay')