Pier's progress

The thought of Mumbai’s Wellington Pier today — with all its associations of hopped-up tourism, hopped-up commerce and the inevitable subconscious jag of men in speedboats bearing their sinister cargo — is not anywhere nearly as calming as it was in 1880. Apollo Bunder, as it was then called, was merely an embarkation and disembarkation point for passengers and goods — the main traffic being in docras (bags) of cotton. To the walkers clustered by the waterfront, inhaling the then-fresher sea breeze, the harbour presented a pleasantly bustling sight, with hundreds of wooden ships and thousands of native vessels floating before them.

This silver albumen print was one of the few straight documentary photographs amidst the more theatrical and ethnographic fare on exhibit at The Artful Pose: Early Studio Photography in Mumbai, c.1855-1940, at the Dr Bhau Daji Lad Museum (formerly the Victoria and Albert Museum) in Mumbai last month. The exhibition was a collaboration with the Alkazi Foundation, Delhi.