The Jury of the Prix SCAM Roger Pic 2015, composed of Daphné Anglès, Irène Attinger, Nadia Benchallal, Marc Le Mené, and Thierry Ledoux, has awarded the prize to Vasantha Yogananthan for his portfolio A Myth of Two Souls (2013–2015).
The series A Myth of Two Souls is inspired by images drawn from the myth of Ramayana and its pervasiveness in the everyday life in India. Written in Sanskrit over two thousand years ago, and ceaselessly modernized, the Ramayana is an invitation to consider India beyond the exotic. Retracing its itinerary from the North to the South of the country, Vasantha Yogananthan offers a modern rereading of the myth, centered on the notion of journey in time. A Myth of Two Souls is composed of two series of images: landscapes—which have become mythical because of their connection to the Ramayana—dialogue with the scenes enacted by the inhabitants. In these staged portraits, the locals interpret before the camera passages from the Ramayana that have left a mark on their imagination.
Shot in black and white using a large-format camera, these theatrical portraits have been subsequently hand-colorized by an Indian painter in the tradition of “hand-painting,” developed in the nineteenth century before the invention of color film. Vasantha Yogananthan has appropriated and modernized this unique technique: his photographs are shot outside the studio, using passersby as actors. The field of household portraits has been thus expanded to include the whole of society—without caste distinctions—and the whole of the territory, from the metropolitan centers to the remote countryside.
A Myth of Two Souls builds a link between fictional and historical stories, through narration that associates color photography, colorized photography, and vernacular miniatures and images from the sixteenth century to the present.
The jury selected the following works as runners-up for the award:
* Gaza, the aftermath, by Virginie Nguyen Hoang, Studio Hans Lucas, Collectif Huma
* La carte du tender, by Alexandra Pouzet
EXHIBITION
From November 17th, 2015 to February 19th, 2016
à la Galerie de la Scam
5 avenue Vélasquez
75008 Paris
France
Du lundi au vendredi, de 10 h à 18h
Entrée libre
http://www.scam.fr
http://www.vasantha.fr/projets/les-figures-eternelles/
