Photography as an act of giving, not simply taking, in a lensman’s romance with town

A present by photographer- artist Georges Atamian on Puducherry, its individuals and tradition, is on at Alliance Française.
| Photo Credit:
M. Dinesh Varma

Armenian-born photographer-artist Georges Atamian has an uncommon approach of extending the life cycle of every body, of reworking what might have in any other case been simply one other scene from the streets into a permanent picture.

Whether he’s adjusting the viewfinder of his trusted Fujifilm tools on a lady vendor on the Goubert Market, a vendor of pooja equipment adjoining to a temple or a boy grinning as he’s clicked behind the again of his mom, Atamian goes again to every topic in his frames to present them a developed print.

And, the picture he clicks of them holding the unique with delight, turns into one other body — an extension of the connection between the photographer and his mannequin, a captivating sequel to their first encounter.

“It’s like a picture-in-picture…a story within a story”, mentioned Atamian, who has titled his ongoing expo on the Alliance Francaise, “L’écho d’un instant” (The echo of an prompt).

Why can not pictures, so usually decreased to an act of taking, grow to be an act of giving?, appears to be the tenet of his artwork.

The assortment of about 70 frames are completely about strange people going about their lives within the metropolis.

From scenes on the bustling Goubert market, the colorful pageantry of a temple competition or the Manju Virattu, a benign bull sport, he handholds the customer on a journey of discovering a microcosm of town’s tradition by means of its individuals and their lives.

As an avid traveller, he’s ever in search of to “preserve moments of beauty and bear witness to the world when it reveals itself in a simple, luminous truth”.

He explores pictures “not only as a means of representation, but also as an act of forging a relationship, sharing and transmission, provoking a reflection on our relationship to images and to others”.

“Simple gestures, ordinary scenes, that in their impermanence, reveal a silent and extraordinary beauty. And, in their hands, their own image is like an echo returned to its source”, he mentioned.

Atamian was hardly exaggerating about how a lot he likes to be amidst strange people going about their lives. Prior to the expo, he had hit the streets to ask the topics of his frames to the occasion. To his delight, lots of them confirmed up for the launch.

Atamian, who stop company life to show to his lifelong ardour about seven years in the past, shuttles between the Savoie division of France, the place he’s settled, and India, a spot he’s in love with. In reality, he would have chosen to have interaction extra with black-and-white frames (as he does for a bit on youngsters and for portraiture) had it not been for the eagerness for color that permeates avenue life right here, he mentioned.

To him, essentially the most fascinating side of pictures is how every second is unique—one second at variance with the next—and how there’s nuance even in a seemingly nonetheless scene.

Atamian, who can also be a jazz musician, seems to be ahead to doc the petanque, a boule sport of French origins that also has a small bands of fanatics in a spot that was ruled by the French for about three centuries.

The expo, which is on until January 18, subsequent strikes to The Spot, after which to Auroville within the latter half of February.