Eyes of Luru

What We Heard

In late June we sat down together at N.R. Road and talked the whole thing through. This is what we took from that afternoon, and what changed in the proposal because of it.

We heard	What changed
Keep the commercials simple.	One cheque, all in, no print invoices. Two options to choose between, and the ₹500 edition's sales revenue stays with LURU, so our incentive is the book selling. §08
Eyewear has become commoditised; what a ninety-year-old house trades on is trust.	Success is now measured against that: the book should earn trust for the name. §05
The digital reach matters, and the book should feed See Bangalore Better.	Every Eyes of Luru post around the book tags S.R. Gopal Rao, and Option Two adds a full digital design scope. §08
The book should be easy to find, and worth a shop's shelf.	We take on all sales and marketing: the three boutiques and the markets first, then LURU's stockists, about fifteen shops and one in London. §08
The house itself has stories: N.R. Road is home and office both, its original beams left in view.	The building is now in the book's story, and real store and family photographs are on the ask list. §01 · §07

Still standing from the 12 June call: Garrett Leight out and the city in front; a keepsake people are excited to receive; about 250 numbered copies to gift plus a ₹500 edition; and an openness to a long-term collaboration. Everything here is built on those.

Why This Book, Why Now

The story begins opposite Tipu Sultan's Fort, in the old quarter of the city. There, in the late 19th century, S.N. Rama Rao, watchmaker and optician to the Maharaja of Mysore, set up shop. His son S.R. Gopal Rao became Bangalore's first qualified optometrist and, in 1936, opened the premises on N.R. Road that still stand today. Four generations of the same family have run the house since, now led by Hemanth Manay, the third, and Meghana Manay, the fourth: three boutiques (N.R. Road, Residency Road, Jayanagar), the Getspexy label, and an online shop. N.R. Road is still home and office both; when the family restored it, they left the original beams and columns exposed.

An old Bangalore street, photographed for Eyes of Luru — The city S.R. Gopal Rao has helped to see for nearly ninety years · from the Eyes of Luru archive

The fit is plain:

An optician presenting a photo series about seeing the city. The pairing explains itself.
SRGR already runs See Bangalore Better and the food walks. This book extends work the house does anyway.
The substance is real: first Essilor Experts in South India, a Myopia Management Centre, a green-company pledge.

We have a content property called "See Bangalore Better" that revolves around building a community of people who live in, and love, Bangalore. Anjali P.V. · S.R. Gopal Rao Opticians

And the timing works. S.R. Gopal Rao turns ninety this year. The archive is ready, the photographers are reachable, and a book made over the monsoon lands in the festive months, when people are buying gifts.

0years of looking · S.R. Gopal Rao, since 1936

0generations of one family · N.R. Road to Jayanagar

0boutiques across Bengaluru · plus Getspexy online

0Mondays a year · the Eyes of Luru cadence

The Story We Want to Tell

Change the lens and a different city comes forward. An optician knows this literally, so the book is organised as six ways of seeing Bengaluru.

The photographs carry the book. SRGR's ninety years run between the chapters as short interludes, a few printed on vellum so the story reads through the page with the city behind it.

Chapter 01 · The Familiar

In Plain Sight

The shutter, the bus stop, the hand-painted sign, the tea stall: what the city walks past every day.

SRGR interlude: the shop on N.R. Road the city has walked past since 1936.

Chapter 02 · The Overlooked

Hidden Bangalore

Courtyards, back lanes, interiors and thresholds a stranger never sees.

SRGR interlude: the old quarter opposite Tipu Sultan's Fort, where S.N. Rama Rao first set up.

Chapter 03 · The Detail

Closer Inspection

The macro frame: texture, grain, the small things held close.

SRGR interlude: the optician's craft, a lens ground true to a fraction of a degree.

Chapter 04 · The Vantage

From Above & Below

Rooftops, terraces, the view up from the pavement.

SRGR interlude: the skyline changing across four generations, watched from one shop counter.

Chapter 05 · The Long View

Distant Admiration

The horizon, the valley at dusk, the city at arm's length.

SRGR interlude: the endorsement of the erstwhile royal family of Mysore.

Chapter 06 · The Low Light

After Dark

Headlamps, neon, the bokeh of a wet road: Bengaluru when the light goes.

SRGR interlude: "Better Vision, Since 1936", seeing clearly when the light is against you.

The scholarly footing

The chapter idea borrows from John Berger's Ways of Seeing and Pierre Bourdieu's writing on amateur photography. Every historical claim about S.R. Gopal Rao is checked against primary sources before print.

A note on editorial honesty

The city appears as it is: the cracked wall beside the gulmohar, the wires over the temple. That honesty is what keeps the book from reading like an advertisement.

The Object Itself

The brief asked for a keepsake: numbered, limited, a delight to receive. We propose a clothbound hardback of 150–180 pages carrying around 150 photographs.

Edition One · ~250 numbered

The Collector Edition

Hand-numbered 001–250, the way a photographer numbers a print run
A clothbound case, foil and blind-emboss, sewn binding, archival paper
Vellum interludes carrying the SRGR story
A colophon that names every photographer

SRGR's to gift; the first buyers of the season receive a copy.

Edition Two · open run

The ₹500 Edition

The same book at ₹500 or less
So a student who shot one of these frames can own the book it lives in
Full colour and sewn, made for counters and bookshops

Anjali asked for both: one to gift, one anyone can buy.

How the form works

Six design behaviours, each borrowed from the optician's world and the photographer's.

The Viewfinder Crop

Chapter openers framed in the Eyes of Luru corner brackets.

Vellum Interludes

SRGR's story on translucent interleaves, the city showing through behind.

Focus Pull

Each chapter sequences from wide to macro, the way a lens racks focus.

The Contact Sheet

Endpapers printed as a contact sheet of every frame in the book.

Numbered Like a Print

The collector edition numbered the way an edition of photographs is numbered.

The Caption Is a Credit

Every photograph carries its maker's handle.

A contact sheet of Eyes of Luru photographs: a grid of small numbered frames on a dark background — The contact sheet: every frame in the book printed small on the endpapers, the way photographers index a shoot.

A reader lifting a translucent vellum sheet over a photograph — Reference · the vellum interlude, story read through the page

A clothbound photo book with a warm orange cover — Reference · clothbound, in the Eyes of Luru orange

Books that set the bar

What we measure against: Raghubir Singh's colour street photography, Dayanita Singh's photo-objects, Sooni Taraporevala's Home in the City, and the production standard of MACK, Steidl and Aperture. The full reference board comes with the first design sprint.

Eyes of Luru: A Living Series

Eyes of Luru runs every Monday. People watch for the post, send in their own frames, and ask which theme is next. We will keep it going regardless; a partner is what makes it last, and S.R. Gopal Rao fits. See Bangalore Better began around 2016 with one person from each neighbourhood talking about the place they grew up in. Eyes of Luru is the same idea, in photographs.

The Eyes of Luru cards: this week's post, and how to take part — The series as it runs today on Instagram · @lurumagazine

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A green chair against a pink wall, Bengaluru — @poetrypopsicles

Autorickshaws lined up in a Bengaluru lane — @aish_the.artful

Street performers in Bengaluru — @thevintagevarma

An old Bengaluru temple façade — eyes of luru

Food laid out on banana leaves, seen from above — @tangupta

A produce cart on a Bengaluru street — @ibnashraf

A Bengaluru interior after dark — @vaishali_kasibhatla

A hand reaching toward a pigeon on a ledge — @niviyavas

A loaded autorickshaw at dusk — @esther_winona

A rooftop scene seen from above — @_nickz_

A bird in the hollow of a tree — @ashiiiiin

A weathered shopfront with No Smoking signs — @someonetalksalot

What the city sends us, every week · tap a frame to open it full screen

The book draws on two streams: the archive above, and a fresh call for submissions themed to the chapters, so people shoot for the book directly.

The call for submissions

Briefs like In Plain Sight, Hidden Bangalore and Closer Inspection run across both channels through the project. The city takes part in making the book, which is the point of the whole series.

Process & Timeline: Mid-to-Late October 2026

Thirteen weeks is fast for a photo book. It works here because the archive already exists and the contributors are reachable, and it lands the book in the festive gifting season.

Phase 0 · Weeks 1–2

Curation & the Call

We assemble and tag the Eyes of Luru archive, open the themed call for submissions across both channels, brief the three commissioned photographers, and begin the S.R. Gopal Rao history research and interviews.

Phase 1 · Weeks 2–6

The Edit & the Shoots

We curate and sequence ~120–150 photographs into the six lenses, commission the new shoots (the house, the counter, the city), and write the SRGR interludes. First approval gate: the story architecture.

Phase 2 · Weeks 5–10

Design & the Dummy

Art direction and layout (~150–180 pages); the vellum-interlude, viewfinder-crop and contact-sheet systems built and prototyped with the printer. Biweekly reviews with Anjali; a full physical dummy in hand by week 10 (second gate).

Phase 3 · Weeks 10–13

Final Edit, Print & QC

Copyedit, proofs, colour management, press passes. The numbering and finish on every one of the 250 collector copies checked by hand before it leaves the printer.

Mid–late October 2026

Launch

The book launches into the festive gifting window, with the launch film and social rollout ready two weeks prior.

The honest note on this timeline

It needs material in the first fortnight, one-week review turnarounds, and vellum and board stock confirmed early. If a gate slips, the collector edition still launches in October and the ₹500 edition follows a few weeks later.

What We Need from S.R. Gopal Rao

Material & access, at kickoff

The archive: the history from S.N. Rama Rao onward, old photographs and documents, store interiors across the decades, the royal-endorsement and Essilor records.

People: Hemanth and Meghana Manay for interviews, the long-serving opticians on the floor, introductions to longtime customers.

Brand guardrails: the brand guidelines, and one conversation about what is sacred and what is open.

A green light on the call for submissions, co-promoted across both channels.

A decision cadence: biweekly 45-minute reviews with Anjali or a named delegate, and one-week turnarounds at the three approval gates.

The Fee: Two Options

We simplified the commercials after our afternoon at the store. Both options are all in: one cheque, finished books in hand, no print invoices. Paper risk is ours, and the specification locks at dummy approval. In both, sales revenue from the ₹500 edition stays with LURU, so we only do well if the city buys the book.

Option One · The Book

₹17,50,000, All In

The full build below: photography, editorial, design, and printing of both editions
We run the launch event at the store and the activations around it
We handle all sales and marketing: the book sells at your three boutiques and at the markets LURU already does, then through our stockists
Every Eyes of Luru post around the book tags S.R. Gopal Rao

The lean shape: you fund the book, we carry the selling of it.

Option Two · The Book + Digital

₹25,00,000, All In

Everything in Option One: same book, same launch, same terms
Plus a digital design scope for S.R. Gopal Rao, shaped together: a design system and templates the See Bangalore Better team can run week to week
The photographs as a rolling slideshow for the in-store screens, refreshed as the series grows
The book cut for the feed: spreads and short films both houses can post

The original number, with the digital layer folded in.

What S.R. Gopal Rao gets, either way

~250 numbered collector copies, yours to gift from day one. Diwali sorted.
The house's ninety-year story researched, written and fact-checked, an archive the family keeps.
The book on your counters first, then in LURU's stockists: about fifteen shops with a Bengaluru shelf, one in London since June.
Your name on every copy sold, and a tag on every Eyes of Luru post around the book.
Photographers paid under your name: around twenty honoraria of ₹15,000 each, for many the first money their work has earned.

Where the money goes

Option One's build, line by line. Option Two adds a digital design line of ₹7,50,000 to the same table. The split is how we plan it today; money can move between lines as the book needs it. The total stays fixed.

Line item	What it covers	Fee (₹)
Photography & the Eyes of Luru commission	~20 amateur honoraria at ₹15,000 (roughly 6–7 frames each) and three professional commissions (about 5 frames each): the house, the counter, and the city.	6,00,000
Editorial, writing & curation	The "ways of seeing" spine, the SRGR history and interludes, and the edit that turns 150 photographs into a story.	3,00,000
Design & art direction	Visual identity, ~150–180 pages of image-led layout, the vellum and cover engineering, pre-press colour.	3,00,000
Production, rights & project management	Contributor licences and credits, the approval gates, press passes and the hand-check of all 250 collector copies.	1,00,000
Printing, both editions	The clothbound, hand-numbered collector run (~250) and the ₹500 edition. Quantities and specification agreed at dummy approval.	4,00,000
The call, launch & social	The themed call for submissions, launch assets, in-store presence, and the shared rollout across both audiences.	50,000
Option One total: everything, books in hand		₹17,50,000

All figures exclude GST at 18%. Out-of-town travel for shoots beyond Bengaluru billed at cost with prior approval.

Payment milestones

Three tranches on either option: 50% on signing, 25% on dummy approval, and 25% on delivery to launch. The larger first tranche reflects the real shape of the spend: the photographer honoraria, the commissioned shoots, and the design team are all paid in the opening weeks, well before the dummy. Each gate still ties to something S.R. Gopal Rao can hold in its hands.

Ownership & Editorial Terms

Draft for discussion

The shape of the partnership. S.R. Gopal Rao presents and funds the book; LURU makes it. The brand chapters and the design are yours to use. Eyes of Luru (the name, the series, the format) stays LURU's, which is what lets it grow into an annual.

The photographs. Each one is licensed from its maker for the book and its promotion, with a credit and an honorarium. We handle the consents, so the book is clean to print, gift and sell.

Editorial voice. You came to LURU for the voice, so we ask for the freedom to write with it. The guardrails, approval gates and biweekly reviews are yours to steer.

Credit. Eyes of Luru, presented by S.R. Gopal Rao. Produced by LURU Magazine. Final wording agreed before print.

Sales revenue. Revenue from the ₹500 edition stays with LURU under either option in §08. It keeps the fee lean, and the sales risk sits with us. The ~250 collector copies are yours from day one.

A draft to be refined together and formalised in the engagement letter.

The Counterfactual Check

Every proposal should argue against itself once. Six risks and what we do about each:

Arguing against ourselves

The brand-book trap. A book of self-praise dies on the coffee table. So the photographs lead and SRGR appears in short interludes.

Image rights at scale. Hundreds of photographs means hundreds of permissions. A consent, credit and honorarium workflow runs from week one.

Amateur quality varies. Not every submission deserves print. A hard curation bar, plus three professional commissions to anchor the book.

The October timeline. Thirteen weeks is tight. Curation is front-loaded, and the ₹500 edition can follow a few weeks later if a gate slips.

Paper volatility. Prices are moving with the war. Print sits inside the fixed fee, so that risk is ours; the spec locks at dummy approval.

The ₹500 economics. At that price the trade edition barely clears print. The low price widens access, and the sales risk is ours.

Next Steps

Step 1 · This week

A short alignment call

Thirty minutes with Anjali to confirm the editorial direction (§02), the two editions (§03), and the mid-to-late-October window, and to pick between the two options in §08. We answer any open questions before the engagement letter.

Step 2 · Within a week

Engagement letter

Deliverables, timeline, milestones, and the terms from §09, kept simple. Every week now matters to an October launch.

Step 3 · Immediately after

Kickoff & the call goes live

Archive curation begins, the themed call for submissions opens across both channels, and the first S.R. Gopal Rao interviews go on the calendar.

We would be proud to make this book, and we are ready to start the week the letter is signed.

What We Heard

Why This Book, Why Now

The Story We Want to Tell

In Plain Sight

Hidden Bangalore

Closer Inspection

From Above & Below

Distant Admiration

After Dark

The scholarly footing

A note on editorial honesty

The Object Itself

The Collector Edition

The ₹500 Edition

How the form works

The Viewfinder Crop

Vellum Interludes

Focus Pull

The Contact Sheet

Numbered Like a Print

The Caption Is a Credit

Books that set the bar

Eyes of Luru: A Living Series

The call for submissions

What Success Looks Like

The return on objective

Process & Timeline: Mid-to-Late October 2026

The honest note on this timeline

What We Need from S.R. Gopal Rao

Material & access, at kickoff

The Fee: Two Options

₹17,50,000, All In

₹25,00,000, All In

What S.R. Gopal Rao gets, either way

Where the money goes

Payment milestones

Ownership & Editorial Terms

Draft for discussion

Why LURU

The Counterfactual Check

Arguing against ourselves

Next Steps