Back Bay is a shallow coastal bay on the Arabian Sea located in southwestern Mumbai, India, positioned between Colaba Point to the south and Malabar Hill to the north. Historically a silting inlet that facilitated maritime activities, the bay became the site of ambitious land reclamation projects aimed at alleviating urban congestion.
The most significant effort, the Back Bay Reclamation Scheme initiated in 1920, successfully reclaimed approximately 439 acres, creating iconic infrastructure such as Marine Drive and the Nariman Point commercial district. While earlier 19th-century attempts failed due to economic downturns, the 20th-century scheme transformed the coastline, replacing mudflats with upscale residential and commercial real estate, including the famous Art Deco precincts along the promenade.
Following the Uprising of 1857, the British started to use photography to gather data on races, castes and communities to better understand the ethnic diversity of the subcontinent. William Johnson, an ardent exponent of ethnographic portraiture, produced some of the early compendiums on this vast subject —like, Photographs of Western India (1855-62) and The Oriental Races and Tribes, Residents and Visitors of Bombay (1863 & 1866), which contained a wide range of images of Bombay and its inhabitants.
