While the name might draw a blank in the minds of today’s new-age, self-titled historians and heritage experts, the Danish chronicler who made this city his home, played a massive role in the early days of the heritage movement
Foy Nissen. File pic
A few weeks earlier, the historic Durbar Hall was the venue for a special panel discussion organised by the Mumbai Research Centre of the Asiatic Society of Mumbai. It was Foy Nissen’s death anniversary, and the idea was to have a reflective conversation honouring his invaluable contributions in context to the city’s layered histories and heritage. Three distinguished voices from Mumbai’s heritage community, Justice (retired) Gautam Patel, conservation architect Vikas Dilawari and physician and photographer, Dr Jehangir Sorabjee, were invited to share their views of Nissen’s overarching impact on our collective urban conscience.
For the uninitiated, Nissen made the city his home, and played a significant role in documenting it visually, as a photographer, as well as historically, as a chronicler of sites and buildings of Mumbai, or Bombay, as it was called then. I first came across Nissen’s body of work while reading Gillian Tindall’s City of Gold many moons ago. His name also stands out in Suketu Mehta’s Over Time, and as work demanded researched articles, his name kept cropping up in the acknowledgments section of countless books about Bombay/Mumbai. His Olympus Apartment residence on Altamount Road was home to a mammoth archive dedicated to the city’s heritage, history and architecture. Students, academics, including visiting researchers and historians, would frequent his home. It was also a salon where great minds would discuss all things heritage and culture in the city. How wonderful to have been a fly on the wall during such conversations!
Close friends and neighbours recall his wanderings on his Vespa, with a camera swung around his neck, in the quest of a new find, buried somewhere in the original city. Often, the pillion rider would be a historian or photographer. His black and white frames are a timeless tribute to the original art of photography; children and people looking out of windows were some of his favourite subjects. He would take enthusiasts on walks as part of the Bombay Local History Society.
It was a privilege to moderate that discussion in early August, and get ringside access to some of those memories, milestones and connections he shared with Bombaywallahs, many of whom were part of the audience. This session was called Foy’s Gaze but almost everyone in the room would agree that his gaze was beyond that of a photographer or a chronicler… he cared deeply for the city and its people, especially the common man.
He also invested in its urban fabric and character. But most significantly, he kick-started the conservation movement in the 1970s and 1980s, and his recommendations formed the core of the first Heritage Guidelines with stalwarts like late Shyam Chainani, and Cyrus Guzder, who was in the room. In the 1980s, the Save Bombay Committee headed by Kisan Mehta and the Bombay Environment Action Group (BEAG) led by Chainani, needed academic insight to give their activism necessary meaning. That’s where Nissen’s contribution mattered. The initial INTACH list of the 1980s was under his guidance. As the session warmed up, and the three experts reminisced about his immense contribution, it became clear that his legacy spilled out well beyond the four walls of the Durbar Hall.
While Justice Patel recalled the much-needed scholarly impetus that his notes and findings offered to those who were spearheading the movement, Dilawari, who considers him his mentor, revealed footnotes of his time with the low-profile Dane, and the learnings that he values till date. Dr Sorabjee spoke of his lens that skipped the city’s bright lights and glamour, and instead focused on the common Bombaywallah; he captured stolen moments of them either catching a snooze, or gazing out of a window, or simply watching time go by; his frames forced one to slow down, despite the pace in an urban milieu.
All three agreed that he would be quite aghast with the current transformations (read: gentrifications) that were rapidly taking over the city’s streetscape, as the floor was thrown open to questions from the audience.
In fact, back in 2019, when an exhibition of his cameras and photographs was on display at the Jehangir Nicholson Art Foundation, at CSMVS, Justice Patel, in his address had mentioned that he foresaw the imminent change and loss that the city was undergoing. From a documentary on his life, to a more substantial memory of his contribution to his adopted city, suggestions to honour Nissen, were aplenty. Also seated in the audience were sisters, Mona and Manju Mehra, his neighbours, who cared for him during his illness, and continue to play a key role in keeping his legacy alive.
It was a gathering where I witnessed the coming together of beautiful minds that care deeply for this beautiful, often mistreated city. To share headspace with them and hear about their ongoing pursuits to keep Nissen’s legacy alive despite multiple challenges, was reassuring and encouraging.
We could surely do with many more modern-day Foy Nissens to safeguard our city for the tougher times that lie ahead…
mid-day’s Features Editor Fiona Fernandez relishes the city’s sights, sounds, smells and stones...wherever the ink and the inclination takes her.
She tweets @bombayana. Send your feedback to mailbag@mid-day.com
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