India, through Emmanuel Lenain lens

The Indian Museum is holding an exhibition of photographs by French ambassador Emmanuel Lenain titled — Seeing you, seeing me.

It opened on Thursday and will be on till May 26.

A collection of 60 black and white photographs, the exhibition explores different sides of the human processes that are at the core of photography as a practice and as an experience.

A diplomat by profession, Lenain indulges in photography as a passion and has held a series of exhibitions.

Lenain’s work has been shown in Paris, he has done photography in China. The ambassador has also done a book, Through Their Eyes: Raghu Rai and Emmanuel Lenain, with lensman Raghu Rai.

“We collaborated on a book where his (Rai’s) photographs of France and my photographs of India were put together,” said Lenain.

Photographs by French ambassador Emmanuel Lenain at the exhibition at the Indian Museum.

The Telegraph

He has done a solo exhibition at the India Habitat Centre in Delhi, which was “more on structures and objects”, titled — InvisiblePoetry.

Lenain’s next exhibition, on architecture, was in Chandigarh, titled — Tender Concrete. He also did cyanotypes in Museo Cameo.

Lenain prints his own photographs whenever he has time.

Photographs by French ambassador Emmanuel Lenain at the exhibition at the Indian Museum.

The Telegraph

At the Indian Museum, the first part of Seeing you, seeing me, a short Indian film roll, explores narrative photography and the connections that the viewer voluntarily or involuntarily establishes between the images they are presented with.

“I like images that do not tell everything at once, images that even combine to bring some unease or allow some space to think. Spoon-feeding is so boring. I have tried to organise the sequence of photos by association and not by classification,” said the ambassador.

Photographs by French ambassador Emmanuel Lenain at the exhibition at the Indian Museum.

The Telegraph

The second part of the exhibition is devoted to the multiple interactions that occur between the photographer and the subject when a photograph is taken.

“In this series of portraits taken randomly across India during chance encounters, the sitters are looking straight at the photographer. Some look defiant but most are surprised and curious since I never ask my subjects to sit nor stage a photo: a connection has thus been established between us,” he said.

Governor C.V. Ananda Bose opened the exhibition on Thursday evening.

Curator Alka Pande said: “In this exhibition, Lenain zeroes down to two plays, that between the subject and object, between the spectator and the image. The play between the two, the liminal spaces of this interaction is what is captured by Lenain. While Lenain’s eye is completely engrossed with the visual image, his brain is constantly deconstructing the image. The result is a much-layered image.”