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Monuments almost always outlive their creators. They stand as testimonies of the past; as portals of history; of a culture and its need to be immortalized. As a former Mexican governor, Lew Wallace, said, “The monuments of the nations are all protests against nothingness after death; so are statues and inscriptions; so is history.”
There is something about old monuments that begs us to look, to introspect, to analyse, the beauty of the architecture serving as reminders of the past and its people, of histories that refuse to be forgotten.
Documenting the architectural brilliance of the monuments of Lucknow is visual storyteller Maroof Umar, a full-time owner of a Graphic Design agency whose always valued art and over the course of the last few years has fallen in love with the timeless and beautiful monuments of Lucknow. Sharing his one-year long journey of documenting monuments on his Instagram, he says, “I belong to a beautiful town, a town with major roots of Indian heritage and history, Lucknow — The City of Nawabs. I pack my cameras and set out on old roads in search of another priceless part of Indian heritage.”
The goal of his page has been to uncover the brilliance of Lucknow’s heritage with the perfect blend of cinematography, creativity and exploration. “The idea is to unleash the historical importance of culture and heritage.”
Maroof says the idea is to explore. “To dive into the folk tales and fables, and experience art at its roots is what drives me,” he says. “Clicking pictures, capturing priceless architectural brilliance, exploring their emotional significance is all I’m about.”
What makes Lucknow incredibly interesting is how the historical city and its by-lanes have always been a model of secularism and tolerance, of inter-religious communities existing in harmony, of a culture that lies at the intersection of history and the present. Of the Urdu tehzeb (way of life) that lingers on in their language, of the monuments that tell tales of Nawabs and of communities that continue to live on as the city shifts shapes and takes on a more contemporary look.
Follow their work here.
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