Having thrown off the shackles of Imperial domination, the post-war Indian government decided they needed a new city, one with progressive values and a fresh design philosophy to match the changing political times. They drafted in a host of architectural innovators, headed by one of the fathers of modernism, Le Corbusier, to literally reshape the landscape. The result was Chandigargh.

French photographer Manuel Bougot has been an avid Le Corbusier fan since the 1980s, and his collection of images Chandigargh: Portrait of a City – currently showing at New Delhi’s PHOTOINK gallery – is a celebration of the extraordinary architectural legacy the Swiss-French ground-breaker left in India. Bougot shot the city over two years, concentrating not only on the important municipal buildings and exterior architecture, in which the neglect and decay of this most important city is very much in evidence, but also more intimate and personal venues such as the inside of ordinary people’s houses. A brilliantly evocative look at living history.

Chandigargh: Portrait of a City runs ’til 27th October at PHOTOINK, New Delhi

Legislative Assembly (back entrance), 2010
Architect: Le Corbusier, 1962
Courtesy Manuel Bougot/Photoink

Private house, Sector 5, 2010
Architect: Unknown, 1953/66
Courtesy Manuel Bougot/Photoink

Private house, Sector 5, 2010
Architect: Unknown
Courtesy Manuel Bougot/Photoink

High Court, 2010
Architect: Le Corbusier, 1955
(Set of 3 photographs)
Courtesy Manuel Bougot/Photoink

Neelam cinema, Sector 17, 2011
Architect: Le Corbusier, 1954/60
Courtesy Manuel Bougot/Photoink

Legislative Assembly, 2011
Architect: Le Corbusier, 1962
Courtesy Manuel Bougot/Photoink

Civil Secretariat Punjab & Haryana, 2010
Architect: Le Corbusier, 1958
Courtesy Manuel Bougot/Photoink