For the last few years, UK-based photographer Stuart Freedman has been photographing and writing about Indian Coffee Houses, which, as he puts it, are a network of simple—and sometimes run-down—cafes that foster much of the intellectual and cultural history of India since independence.
Later this year, Stuart hopes to release a limited edition, hardcover photo book published by Dewi Lewis Publishing as a tribute to these coffee houses. “The Palaces of Memory” will showcase the photos and essays he’s created over the years, along with a foreword from acclaimed Indian author Amit Chaudhari. Stuart recently launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund the costs of publishing the book, which you can check out here.
Stuart says the book is about his love affair with the coffee houses. They’ve been important to him for almost 20 years—he would often visit them (specifically the spot in New Delhi) during long stays in the city to get away from the “streets, stares and strangeness of India.”
I came here to be anonymous, but the coffee house taught me a valuable lesson as a young journalist. The people that I spoke with—at that time mostly old men who wanted to talk about everything from politics to poetry—were the same people in the cheap cafes of my Hackney (a poor part of East London that is now the epicenter of trendiness in Europe) childhood. People would happily while away a few hours with a single cheap cup of coffee. It made me realise that the world was not strange and different, but very much the same all over. People have the same dreams and aspirations all over the world and the coffee house was a place where they’d come and sit and watch the world go by. In such frenetic place as Delhi this was important. It was a ‘pause’ in the city and a rare place for reflection.
Stuart first photographed the Delhi coffee house a few years ago when he was assigned to write a 4000-word piece on it by a German magazine. Since then, he’s photographed Indian coffee houses all across the country, but his photos have stayed the same: simple and unobtrusive.
I want the pictures to tell stories, and I’ve tried to make them as beautiful and engaging as I could. The work on that level isn’t about me, but simple and (I hope) lovely images. I talk to people, sit with them and work.
For Stuart, the piece is both a traditional documentary project and a way to see India in a different light (along with being a great excuse to talk to people and drink a good bit of coffee).
I wanted a way ‘into’ India that didn’t pander to either the stereotypes of ‘exotica’ or ‘poverty’ at a time of great change for the country. I’ve been working there on and off for almost two decades and the societal change has been enormous. I wanted to work on something that showed everyday people just living their lives and the coffee houses, always a home from home for me, provided the perfect platform.
Stuart’s message is that Indian coffee houses should be cherished, as they are an important part of Indian culture, and the book is a way to show that to the rest of the world.
People in India really cherish the coffee houses—they are a kind of aide-memoire to a fondly remembered post-independence past, but we all forget what’s around us and its importance. I hope that these images will make people remember and revisit the coffee houses. I want people to connect to them, and for people in other countries to take a peak into these fascinating places, too.
See more of Stuart’s work on his website, stuartfreedman.com, and click here to learn more about the Kickstarter campaign.