Where photography meets public

Paramjot Walia

Central Delhi celebrated a French-Indian collaboration through ‘’Fête de la photo‘,a photofest providing avenues to bring photography closer to the public, reports Paramjot Walia.

This season, photography trespasses the confines of the galleries and makes a tête-à-tête interaction with the public.Central Delhi witnessed the first pan-India photography festival displaying art in public spaces. Aimed at showcasing the multi-faceted nature of the French culture through unique Indo-French co-productions, ‘Fête de la photo’,a mega festival organized by Alliance Francaise, Institut Francais en Inde and the French Embassy in India,is travelling through eleven cities – Delhi, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Puducherry, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Goa, Trivandrum and Chandigarh. Celebrating the dynamism of photography, the festival features a multitude of photographers including Gauri Gill, Raghu Rai, Pablo Bartholomew, Shome Basu, Parthiv Shah, Xavier Zimbardo, Denis Felix and Ajay Talwar, and thus, aims to explore various genres like macro photography, a series on Paris, women’s issues, cinema in India and fashion photography among others.

Connaught Place, with its open space and incredible foot fall, becomes a perfect venue for letting art reach the public.The monochrome life-size projections of the ‘Paris series’ by Ami Mehra and Shome Basu capture the essence of Paris and it’s intricate architecture using backdrops of famous French places and venues – Stade de France, Rolland Garros, Eiffel tower, Montmartre, South of France, Louvre etc). Central park, too, boasts of images of the captivating beauty of Paris through the series ‘Raghu Rai In Paris’. Jantar Mantar witnessed the hypnotic playful illusion created by renowned stellar photographers Laurent Laveder, Thierry Legault and Ajay Talwar as part of the ‘Astrophotography’ section of the Fête dela Photo. The Delhi Metro, in association with the Embassy of France, mounted an exhibition of rare photographs by renowned photographer Pablo Bartholomew. With an average of seven lakh daily commuters,Rajeev Chowk Metro station became an unbeaten winner to showcase the centenary year celebration of Indian Cinema. The lifesize photographs tracing the evolution of Indian cinema have been put together in the exhibition titled ‘Film Industry: Then and Now’. Rare photographs of some of India’s cinematic icons, for instance Amitabh Bachchan in the film Shahenshah, stand tall in the concourse area over the walkways. The rooftop of Palika parking openly addresses issues concerning women as it features a projection of the documentary ‘When a woman Speaks, Listen!’ by Cecile Planti and Gaei Rene.