Piémanson Beach, a few miles from Arles, is the last remaining wild beach in France, and one of those places that makes taking beautiful pictures look easy. There’s an element of marginality to this beach and the people who come here, as well as an authentic connection between man and nature, which is currently all the rage among young photographers. For the past few summers, Vasantha Yogananthan, a 29-year old Franco-Tamil photographer, has come with this medium-format camera to seek out these “Voluntary Robinsons,” to borrow a term from Rémi Coignet’s introduction. In this long-term work, no scene stands out as extraordinary. And perhaps it’s better that way: the space is available for those wishing to spend a few weeks living a simpler life away from civilization.
A little boy sleeps on a mattress, sucking his thumb next to his faithful friends, a shaggy white dog and a wide-eyed cat. Further on, two kids play on a boat. A little girl does her chores. Another stands on the beach, her expression absent, as a father and daughter embrace next to their big brown dog. Yogananthan is deeply empathetic, capable of being moved by the slightest thing. He elevates the banal to the heights of visual poetry. Of course, there’s some distance, with groups of men and women standing rigid like the beams they use for their makeshift homes, as well as landscapes and architectural shots. But when the photographer approaches, people become objects and the intimate relationship he’s formed with his subjects is plain. Viewers will be reminded of documentary photographers like Chris Killip, Paul Graham or even Alessandra Sanguinetti, given Yogananthan’s attachment to color. Here he sees mostly blue and white. The blue of the sea, sky and ships. The white of the sand, skin and trailers. Little room is left for reds and greens crucial to these pastel pigments.
Piémanson is Yogananthan’s first book. Like so many others of his generation, faced with a fragile economy, he knows one has to be proactive, to take one’s future into one’s own hands. The work also showcases the concept of the photographic series itself, an essential tool in the development of those who don’t yet have all the talent, experience or influence of the greats. This year, Yogananthan founded Chose Commune with Cécile Poimboeuf-Koizumi, a small, independent publishing house from which we can already expect great things. His next project involves a trip to India, the Ramayana (the masterpiece of Indian literature written in Sanskrit over 2,000 years ago) and “photographing the indian imaginary.”
BOOK
Piémanson by Vasantha Yogananthan
Photographs and text: Vasantha Yogananthan
Essay: Rémi Coignet
Editing: Vasantha Yogananthan & Cécile Poimboeuf-Koizumi
Design: Atelier 25
English Translation: Julia McLaren
Publisher: Chose Commune
Hardover
23 x 28 cm
80 pages
36 color photographs
650 copies
42 €
ISBN : 978-2-9548777-0-9
