Smile, Please

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The opening act of Matthieu Foss Gallery, a space dedicated exclusively to photo-based art, features black and white portraits that are simultaneously beautiful and banal. Taken by veteran photographer Marcus Leatherdale, these photos of Adivasis have amazing aesthetic appeal, but also reinforce every cliché of rural India: there are cows and elephants, bananas and saadhus, numerous ripped men in tiny loin cloths.

Surface Reflections

This largely unoriginal, outsider’s perspective is particularly disappointing in light of the fact that Leatherdale is not a travelling photographer, but one who lives amongst tribes in Chhotanpur, Jharkand for six months a year.

Flashes of Life

There are, however, frames in which his familiarity with the people, his viewpoint on their culture comes across: in the print of a saadhu looking tenderly up at the sky, a young monk laughing so hard he can’t keep his eyes open, a woman fully bent over, her form a tangle of twisted, awkward shapes. In one photo, a young girl veiled behind a zardozi pallu looks seductive rather than repressed; in another, the thick ornaments around a man’s neck are reminiscent of shackles.

Star Attractions

Leatherman’s experience as a fashion photographer is apparent in the handful of celebrity shots scattered through the exhibit. Dimple Kapadia has never looked better than through his lens, where she channels her regal, earthy self (think Lekin and Rudaali), and a supine, blouse-less shot captures exactly the essence of Protima Bedi.

A Clear View

Whether the subject is bananas or buns, Leatherman’s photography remains stunningly sharp. You can see every dust mote, every callus, every sparkling sequin. According to a gallery curator, Leatherman is heavily into analog photography, and develops all the film himself. None of his work is ever Photoshopped.

The space itself is simple and whitewashed, a perfect foil for the pictures. If the trials and tribulations of primitive Indian life are not your thing, you can catch the gallery’s next exhibit by Shahid Datawala, beginning mid-Feb. But we suggest you drop in for this one, if for nothing more than the pleasure of good, old fashioned photography in our air brushed, hyper-digitalised world.

Getting there: Matthieu Foss Gallery, ground floor, Hansraj Damodar building, Goa Street, Ballard Estate, prints start at 2,000 USD.