STEVE MCCURRY | Blue City, Jodhpur, India, 2010

Acquired directly from the artist
Peter Fetterman Gallery, Santa Monica

W. Dalrymple, India: Steve McCurry, Phaidon, London, 2015
F. La Thangue et al., Steve McCurry, Beetles & Huxley, London, 2016, pl. 31

The colours and tones in the print appear rich and bright. This print has not been inspected outside of its frame.This print is in very good condition overall as viewed.
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In this breathtakingly detailed vista, McCurry captures the mystical city of Jodhpur. McCurry photographed the famous blue city on multiple occasions, most typically through close-up scenes within its narrow streets. By contrast, in the current work, we are presented with an expansive view of the city’s architecture. Jodhpur lays within the Thar desert in the state of Rajasthan. The burnt orange of the desert is echoed in the flashes of warm light shown interspersed throughout the cityscape. These bursts of yellow, orange and red complement the cool blues of the city, and paired with the areas of dark shadow, furnish the photograph with incredible depth. The blue buildings of Jodhpur are often associated with Lord Shiva and his Brahmin followers in the city, who throughout history have believed the colour to be sacred. Other theories attribute the colour of the city to the presence of copper-sulphate in the original white paint of the buildings, or to the indigo trade in and near Jodhpur during the colonial period. Whilst the reason behind the blue of Jodhpur remains unclear, the awe-inspiring appearance of the blue city is undeniable. In McCurry’s monumental photograph, the blue buildings, the mysterious man and woman who observe the city from a roof in the foreground and the implausible perspective of the scene depicted, all serve to render Jodhpur as an other-worldly paradise.