Imagine this. It's 1947 Delhi. A woman in a sari is cycling through the capital with a nine-kilogram camera strapped to her back. Every other photographer at the press events is a man. Nobody takes her seriously.
That was her advantage.
Her name was Homai Vyarawalla — India's first woman photojournalist. She photographed the first flag hoisting at Red Fort, Mountbatten's last salute, and Gandhi's funeral. She shot Nehru, Jacqueline Kennedy, Queen Elizabeth II, and the Dalai Lama. Her early photographs? Published under her husband's name, because editors didn't think a woman's byline would be taken seriously.
Most people have never heard of her.
Now her photographs are on display at the Kochi Biennale — and where they're hanging matters as much as what's in them.
The Jail of Freedom Struggle is a small compound behind the Fort Kochi police station that most Biennale visitors walk right past. Eight cramped cells, 50 square feet each, with concrete beds and cast iron doors. This is where freedom fighters like AK Gopalan and EMS Namboodiripad were locked up by the British.
Today, inside those cells: Homai's photographs of India's very first Republic Day parades — the brand-new nation performing itself for the first time. Photographs of freedom, displayed inside a prison built to crush it.
Exhibition: Re: Public/Staging: Delhi Where: Jail of Freedom Struggle, Fort Kochi (near the police station, short walk from Aspinwall House) When: Until March 31, 2026 Entry: Free (part of Biennale Invitations programme)
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More from the Biennale this week:
Gandhi's Final Footsteps — Inside the powerful Simi Warehouse exhibition. Read more
The Ultimate Biennale Guide — All venues, schedules, and artists in one place. Explore
A Curated Calendar Things to Do in Fort Kochi this February. See the list
See you around My Beloved Fort Kochi, The Cats