Vasantha Yogananthan
An Ocean of Uncertainty Kanyakumari, Tamil Nadu, India, 2013
Black and white C-print hand-painted by Jaykumar Shankar, 13,3 . 16,5 in, edition of 7 + 1 artist proof
© Vasantha Yogananthan. Courtesy Print Sales Gallery.
Sea of Trees, Kodiyakarai, Tamil Nadu, India, 2018
Archival inkjet print hand-painted with inks, 34 . 43,3 in, edition of 7 + 1 artist proof
© Vasantha Yogananthan. Courtesy Print Sales Gallery.
Born in 1985 in Grenoble. Lives and works in Marseille, France.
Presented by Tatyana Franck
A Myth of Two Souls
A strong interest in painting has led Vasantha Yoganathan to explore the genres of portraiture, still life and landscape. Using their codes as a starting point, he redefines his photographic approach to produce images that expand the traditional genre, united by a distinct palette of muted colors, achieved solely through natural light.
With A Myth of Two Souls, Vasantha Yogananthan offers a retelling of the Indian myth of the Ramayana. Drawing inspiration from the imagery associated with this epic, which is omnipresent in daily life in India, A Myth of Two Souls mixes images captured on the spot with others that are staged, and uses various techniques including overpainted photography. Over the course of nine years (2013 – 2021) and through the thirteen trips to India, Nepal and Sri Lanka that he made to complete A Myth of Two Souls, Vasantha Yogananthan himself completed an epic journey. The first six books of this project were published between 2016 and 2020 by the publishing house Chose Commune. The last chapter, Amma, published in October 2021, is a finalist for the Aperture / Paris Photo Book Prize. To mark the end of the project, Vasantha Yogananthan will produce a new piece that will be presented exclusively at the a ppr oc he salon.
Vasantha Yoganathan’s work has received several awards: Levallois Prize in 2016, ICP Infinity Award emerging photography in 2017. The same year he was selected as one of the 20 winners of the FOAM Talent. In 2018 and 2019 he won the Camera Clara Award and the Photo-Text Book Award in Arles. In 2019 he is the laureate of Immersion, a residency program of the Fondation d’Entreprise Hermès, which he will complete in 2022, and whose restitution will take place at the Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson in 2023. Vasantha Yoganathan’s works are part of private and public collections such as the Victoria & Albert Museaum (London), the Musée de l’Élysée (Lausanne), the FOAM Museum (Amsterdam), the Centre National des Arts Plastiques (Paris) and the Musée Français de la Photographie (Bièvres). His books are part of the permanent collection of the MoMA bookshop (New York).
The Photographers’ Gallery
The Photographers’ Gallery was founded in London’s Covent Garden in 1971 and was the first public gallery in the UK dedicated to the medium of photography. It remains a leader in the presentation and exploration of the medium in all its forms. It has made a major contribution to promoting photography’s pivotal and influential role in culture and society and securing its position as an important art form.
The Photographers’ Gallery, 16-18 Ramillies Street —Londres, W1F7LW, United Kingdom
