Thomas, Alan

Alan Thomas, having spent much of his career documenting the inhabited landscape in America and abroad, turned his focus to Calcutta in his series, Approaching Calcutta (2011- 2013). As the capital of the British Raj until 1911, Calcutta is in transition as it struggles to define its place in an upwardly mobile India. A quickly expanding economy and increasing globalization has led to sporadic metropolitan development and informal—or oftentimes absent—urban planning initiatives. Thomas’s images expose Calcutta's ambiguous cultural identity, juxtaposing traditional elements of Indian life against the backdrop of urbanization, and raise questions about the varying effects on the inhabitants of a place amid rapid cultural and physical changes. Alan Thomas has been the Editorial Director for the University of Chicago Press since 2001.