A journey into the heart of the Indian metropolis that finds its historical profile, through characters in the public eye, rituals and intimate landscapes.
Trained in painting and nourished by the history of art, Patrick Faigenbaum made his first photographs in the early 70s: the portrait remains the essential basis of his work and when he moves away, there is always with a certain intimacy that he faces unknown territories of his. “ At the base of my work is the home studio and the neighborhood where there is an artist named Shreyasi Chatterjee , he explains in his file. This was to avoid the image of eternal or scenic India without sustaining an equally caricatured idea of modernization. »
The project has evolved and after six successive trips by the author to Calcutta and its environs, it is now titled Kolkata / Calcutta. This "doublet" therefore refers to the Bengal previously called metropolis Calcutta by the English, who still persist the signs of these divisions into quarters, very present in Faigenbaum's work. As noted by the art critic and historian Jean-Francois Chevrier in the book, Patrick's images come from an internalized vision of the city; they are the result of a personal look, directed by various people.
The meetings were fundamental; many artists, musicians, directors in the public eye. He also attends Bengali rituals daily, never forgetting his position as a privileged spectator, traveler, many passenger trains, who never forgets his Western ties.
The book, published by Lars Müller Publishers is a dense book, full of detailed information on Bengali culture, it consists of seven distinct sequences that still intuitively reflect the photographer must, under the umbrella, behold the great Bengali poet Tagore: portraits, street scenes, rural life or still life follow one another. Towards them Chevrier commented: “ a still life is a model of the landscape, and the landscape enlarged still life. Their documentary content requires only the choice of harvested fruit. But they are a metaphorical image of the rural area which includes the metropolitan area. “Legends, sometimes extensively developed, complete the book by emphasizing precisely the desire to integrate the layers of that culture into the images, but also the plastic approach of the photographer.
The exhibition presents 33 works, similar to arrays, quite large format in color and black and white. As part of the new alliance between the Hermès Foundation (exclusive sponsor of the HCB Award) and the Aperture Foundation, the exhibition will be presented in New York from 18 September to 29 October 2015.
