How do you define Bombay? By the spray of tony art deco on Marine Drive or the tumbledown charm of Irani cafes? By scruffy taxis lining a diamond district, or its never say die spirit? Or do you define it as a stolen nugget – a bindass Bombay now rarely seen in a maximum Mumbai?
No matter which way you look at it, Bombay… Mumbai… is a city to savour. A city that reveals itself to anyone who cares to explore it. This evening we meet two explorers, seduced to look past their first impressions. One captured life on the streets of Mumbai uncovering a hidden city. While the other recreated an unrealised Bombay, from ideas that never saw the light of the day.
Join the two imaginators as they show you their Bombay/Mumbai, once a collection of small islands separated by swamps that is today a city of dreams to two foreigners adamant about calling it home.
Robert Stephens After completing his Bachelor of Architecture degree from Virginia Tech in 2007, Robert Stephens left his childhood hometown of Summerville, South Carolina and moved to Mumbai, India. He joined RMA Architects as an apprentice at the age of 22 and is now a principal at the same firm. Robert is part of the core team at RMA responsible for recent additions to Mumbai’s built environment, including the CSMVS Visitors’ Centre (2011) and Children’s Museum (2019) at Kala Ghoda, and the under-construction Mata Ramabai Ambedkar Crematorium at Worli. In 2016, he founded Urbs Indis, a studio that narrates lesser-known civic histories through the juxtaposition of archival material with contemporary aerial photographs of urban India. His work has been exhibited in Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Chennai and Edinburgh, and has appeared in publications such as The Guardian, DOMUS India and Scroll.in. He currently lives in Mumbai with his wife and son.
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Sunhil Sippy grew up and was educated in the UK before heading to America to pursue an undergraduate degree in English Literature from Georgetown University. He moved to Mumbai in 1995 to explore a career in film and advertising. His first feature Snip! won the National Award for Best Editing in 2001 and he went on to immerse himself in the world of commercials, successfully directing for brands like Asian Paints, Blue Star, Pepsi, Horlicks and Lux among many others. His photographic work began with vigour around 2008, and his passion for the streets of Mumbai has broadly driven his vision for the past 15 years. He participated in the citywide Focus Photography Festival in 2013 and 2015 and in 2020 attended an intensive street photography workshop with Alex Webb in Mexico. He continues to direct while also pursuing photographic and film work for philanthropic organizations such as The Savitri Waney Charitable Trust, Teach For India, Akanksha and Hamari Silai.
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