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THE PAINTED VILLAGE OF LABANDHAR

Anjan Ghosh’s photographs carry us to Labandhar, where painting becomes language, tradition stays present, and art grows through shared ground.

February 1, 2026

PICTORIAL STORY

PHOTOGRAPHY Anjan Ghosh
STORY Anjan Ghosh
INTRODUCTION Melanie Meggs

Anjan Ghosh’s photography grows out of a life shaped by movement between worlds, by attention learned slowly, and by a deep familiarity with the places he photographs in India. His work reflects a journey in which looking is inseparable from living, and photography becomes a way of staying close to what has formed him rather than stepping away from it. His photographs carry the weight of lived experience, not as autobiography, but as a quiet grounding force.

This story is situated in rural and semi-urban Bengal, unfolding across villages, working landscapes, and transitional spaces shaped by daily survival. It follows Anjan as he moves through these places over time, returning to the same communities as they negotiate change. These are environments positioned between tradition and transformation, where rural and urban realities press against one another without fully merging.

Anjan’s photography develops in response to this tension. His photographs do not frame these communities as peripheral or vanishing, but as active sites of continuity and adaptation. Through sustained return to the same regions, he builds a visual language grounded in familiarity, allowing everyday life to surface without emphasis or interruption. What emerges is a sustained effort to bridge distance, not through declaration, but through presence.

This story considers photography as a form of listening. It asks what happens when the camera is used not to extract, but to remain; not to define, but to stay open. Within that space, everyday life is neither aestheticized nor diminished. It is allowed to stand, complex and intact.
ANJAN GHOSH

Tucked away in the quiet stretches of Purba Bardhaman lies Labandhar, a small Bengal village that has done something extraordinary. What was once a cluster of mud homes surrounded by forest has now transformed into a living canvas. Here, walls are not just walls — they are storytellers.


Walk through Labandhar and you immediately feel it. Every house, every courtyard, and every narrow lane is covered in vivid Alpona-style paintings. Reds, whites, greens, and earthy shades flow across the mud surfaces like handwritten memories. Each artwork carries a piece of rural life: dancing tribal figures, birds in flight, sun motifs, forest scenes, symbols of harvest and hope. These are stories painted with love, pride, and the rhythm of everyday village life.

The transformation didn’t happen overnight. Artists from different corners of India visited the village, worked with local families, and helped them rediscover their own traditions. Slowly, Labandhar shifted from a quiet settlement to a place where creativity breathed through every wall. Today, it’s fondly known as Alpona Gram — a village where art lives in the open, not behind gallery doors.


What makes Labandhar magical is its honesty. The walls carry natural textures, cracks, and uneven strokes — the kind of beauty that only rural hands can create. At dusk, when the soft light touches the murals, the entire village glows like a storybook coming alive.


Labandhar is more than an art destination. It is proof that creativity can rebuild identity. The murals have brought curiosity, visitors, and new energy to the people here. Women now join workshops, children grow up seeing their culture celebrated, and the village stands proudly as a symbol of Bengal’s living heritage.


If you ever want to see a place where stories are painted instead of written, where tradition lives on mud walls, and where art grows from the soil itself, Labandhar is waiting for you.

For Anjan Ghosh, Labandhar represents a convergence of practice and responsibility. His photographs do not frame the village as an endpoint or a success story, but as an ongoing cultural process shaped by collective effort. What the work ultimately reveals is not the scale of change, but the conditions that allow creativity to remain embedded in everyday life.


This story closes with photography functioning as record rather than resolution. Anjan’s role is to make visible a model of continuity, where art operates in shared public space and attention supports preservation without control. The village remains open and art activated, and the photographs leave it that way.


To explore more of Anjan Ghosh’s work, we invite readers to view his portfolio and follow his ongoing photographic journey on Instagram, where his long-term engagement with people and place continues to unfold.

The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in the text belong solely to the author/s and are not necessarily shared by The Pictorial List.

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