From seven islands to a city of 20 million, Bombay (now Mumbai) has been shaped over centuries by political, economic and social forces.
From Koli fisherfolk to colonial planners, and from Bollywood stars to textile barons, many have shaped the western Indian city's landscape and identity.
The city is ever-evolving, the past giving way to the future, birthing new guises and blurring the old. From fishing nets to ports and mills to malls, Bombay has constantly reinvented itself and remained a city in flux.
A new exhibition 'Bombay Framed' charts the city's shape-shifting passage through the centuries using a stunning array of paintings, photographs and multimedia prints.
More than 100 images spanning three centuries have an extraordinary range that document the city in its full diversity from the elite worlds of Zoroastrian merchants and cinema stars to working-class lives of ordinary citizens.
Together they invite us to see the city itself as a kind of artwork: layered, complex and made up of many different experiences, Gyan Prakash, curator of the exhibition, told the BBC.
According to Prakash there are a few key moments when Bombay really changed - in the 1830s and 40s, when reclamations and bunds joined the seven separate islets into a single island city.
In the 1860s, the fort walls came down, paving the way for imperial buildings to come up which gave the city its distinct colonial identity. Subsequently, the Marine Drive corniche was constructed in the 1920s and 30s, birthing a uniquely modern architectural style that diverged from the earlier Victorian Gothic character.
Since the 2000s, the city's planners have been preoccupied with building more utilitarian infrastructure, with new sea bridges and coastal roads, radically transforming how the city looks today.
This is a city of stark contradictions and wild extremes - luxury towers jostling for space with shanty towns, the restless chaos of the city standing in contrast to the calmness of the ocean surrounding it and heritage structures co-existing with the city's modern pursuits.
But a city's soul is animated not just by its buildings and structures but also by the people who inhabit it. Even the early British picturesque views of the sea and boats include human figures, reminding us that the environment was always shaped by human activity, says Prakash.
From Parsi philanthropists, Maharashtrian nobility, to mill workers and marginalized migrant settlers, the photographs showcase the city's many faces that stake a claim to the making of Bombay. The commissioned portraits reflect the patronage networks and social aspirations of the community that formed the mercantile fabric of the city in the early 20th century.
In stark contrast, artists like Chittaprosad depict working-class life. The executed themes in the exhibition highlight the diversity and complexity of Bombay's transformation into a global metropolis.
The city's name was officially changed from Bombay to Mumbai in the mid-1990s. Authorities stated this was to shed its colonial legacy, making the older name politically charged for some. The exhibition's title Bombay Framed reflects the time when most images were taken, echoing the city's long history rich with dual names and perspectives.
