Chirodeep Chaudhuri is obsessed with clocks. The photographer’s black-and-white images of Mumbai’s public clocks are becoming well known, but it’s not just about the timepieces. Also of interest is everything else he catches in the frame, from vehicles to pedestrians, trees and roofs. Context and history. Some were taken from the ground up, others from vantage points – he has even been allowed into people’s homes to photograph clocks seen through windows or from balconies.
A documentary photographer who has worked with National Geographic Traveller and Time Out Mumbai, Chaudhuri’s obsession was triggered in 1996, when the Rajabai clock tower, modelled on London’s Big Ben and dating back to 1878, caught his eye while he was working in the Fort area of Mumbai. Thereafter, he found himself gazing at facades as he travelled through the city, his eyes drawn to clocks on high pediments or topping towers.
