“Unveiling Paradoxes”: Spotlighting Uttar Pradesh through Photography
Walking into the second-floor Common Room of Luce Hall this summer, one is greeted by an array of vibrant photographs depicting water, earth, and human subjects. In one photograph taken by Vrindavan-based photographer Abhinav Goswami, devotees and ascetics raise a blazing, multi-tiered oil lamp against the dark river in Vrindavan during the 2010 Yamuna River floods.
In another photograph, taken by Mumbai-based photographer Shaleen Parekh, ascetics and pilgrims ferry across the river, backlit by yellow streetlights. The photo was taken in Prayagraj during the 2013 Kumbh Mela, a major Hindu religious gathering at the Sangam (the confluence of the Ganga, Yamuna, and Saraswati rivers)—and the biggest human congregation in recorded history.
Installed on March 30, 2026, the photographs showcase scenes from Uttar Pradesh, the most populous state in India. Although the state is home to numerous cultural landmarks like the Taj Mahal and the ancient holy city of Varanasi, it also faces critical development challenges—a paradox that the exhibition engaged through, for example, photographs of holy rituals as well as concurrent environmental degradation.
Brian Wahl, Assistant Professor at the Yale School of Public Health and who worked on public health issues in Uttar Pradesh, said that Uttar Pradesh “is the electoral powerhouse of India, home to a young and growing population, and the focus of ambitious infrastructure investments.” But, he added, “it continues to face high maternal and child mortality, environmental degradation, uneven economic growth, and fragile governance structures.”
Swapna Sharma, Senior Lector in Hindi at Yale as well as a scholar of Braj Bhasha literature and cultural production in Uttar Pradesh, said the state is an “often under-examined region in South Asia because it lies at the center of India’s political, cultural, linguistic, and religious life.”
Sharma also spoke of how Uttar Pradesh’s rich literary traditions have shaped the state and the photographs in the exhibition. Specifically, themes from Bhakti (or devotional) poetry are also reflected in the photographs “through themes of sacred rivers, collective devotion, and the blending of everyday life with spiritual practice.”
The exhibition was a key object of study during a private conference held in April. The conference focused on Uttar Pradesh and was organized by Wahl and Sharma, along with Diana Balmori, Associate Professor of Architecture, Anthony Acciavatti, and with support from the South Asian Studies Council. Funded by MacMillan’s Kempf Memorial Fund for On-Campus Convening, and the Yale Institute for Global Health and titled “Unveiling Paradoxes: Object Lessons from Uttar Pradesh,” the conference brought together scholars and practitioners—from Yale, Canada, and India—in fields ranging from history to public policy to medicine. Using the exhibition as a lens, attendees analyzed and discussed solutions to Uttar Pradesh’s most pressing issues.
I hope the exhibition encourages viewers to move beyond stereotypical or simplified images of Uttar Pradesh. The region cannot be understood through single narratives.
Wahl said that although the Ganga and Yamuna rivers sustain livelihood and spiritual traditions, they “are also sites of mounting tensions between the communities that depend on them.. “ Commenting on Goswami and Parekh’s photographs, he said, “While beautiful, they are not decorative images. They are documents of real contradictions unfolding in real time.”
The exhibition will be open for viewing in Luce Hall to all Yale affiliates through the summer.
Story written by Thy Luong '28, student writer at the MacMillan Center.