This week, the Nine Fish Gallery and Dot Line Space will host a posse of shutterbugs, including Mumbai's news photographers, at a show titled, Not Allowed, by photographer Salamat Husain, 37. The guests, some of whom are used to being prevented from practising photography/videography in public-private spaces, will be encouraged to share their perspective on the 45-odd images in the solo exhibition. They can narrate their stories—disrupted shoots, stealthy entries into no-photography zones, confiscation of equipment—which, Husain hopes, will add newer perspectives to his exploration of contemporary society through photography. CM Uddhav Thackeray, also a passionate photographer, has been invited as chief guest, though one is not sure if his Tuesday diary will allow the commitment.

"Two words, 'photography' and 'prohibited', bring so many common experiences to the fore, more so for the paparazzi whose trade entails recording the moment for posterity," says Gourmani Das, 27, show curator and director of the gallery. He is keen to start a dialogue around spaces—sacred, secular, public, restricted and open. Das, whose tryst with the city began from the BFA classroom at the Sir JJ School of Art, has devoted a year to deliberate with Husain over the possibilities of the Not Allowed concept. Long afternoons over coffee and deep exchanges over the complex role of photography as an art form, much like paintings, brought the two together. "Who else but a migrant Bengali from Tripura could have appreciated the Not Allowed vibe?" says Das of himself. Once based in Agartala, he in jest, refers to the "mainland vs native place" construct that people from India's North Eastern states relate to.