Tristen Gonzalez
Digital Photography
Thursday 8pm
11/5/15
Exhibit Review
As you first enter the Patrick Faigenbaum: Kolkata/Calcutta exhibit you really don’t know what expect until you are greeted with a huge plaque explaining the type of photos that you will be seeing in this exhibit. For such a small exhibit I was impressed by how much open space there is. Each photo had enough space between them allowing you to focus and immerse yourself in the photo without getting distracted by the others. The kind of photos you see in this exhibit are based on the daily life of the Kolkata/Calcutta citizens. The photographer Patrick Faigenbaum “sought to avoid the image of India the eternal, the picturesque, while taking care not to promote the equally stereotypical idea of modernization”(Jean-Francois Chevrior). In other words his goal while taking these photos was to show that this part of India had its own visual appeal even without the modernization of Great Britain.
The subject matter of the exhibit was based on daily life and in somewhat poverty. The kind of people you see in these photos are ordinary citizens who are just trying to make a living or are just captured in the moment. You see a man who shines shoes, ladies who sell corn, butchers, sitarist players, chess players, and children. However we do not see any sort of luxurious objects or fancy scenery in these photos. Most of the photos are focused on the people that live in this colony rather than the background surrounding them.
The photo I liked most from this exhibit was the photo of the “Itinerant corn sellers in Baguihati, northeast Kolkata”. The reason I chose this photo was because I liked the way the black and white brings out so much emotion to the two ladies who are selling the corn. You can sense that they have a look of eagerness to sell their product. The buildings in the background create leading lines that lead to many other itinerant sellers. Which to me makes the photo seem more dramatic because the corn sellers have to compete with all those other sellers and implies that they have a long road ahead of them.
Overall this exhibit is about demonstrating the daily life of the Kolkata people. To me the photos do have an emotional impact because the expressions on the people faces show exhaustion but at the same time they are captured with a calm mood to them. In these photos, Faigenbaum is trying to convey to the viewer that the colony of Kolkata/Calcutta can be visually engaging too.
I find the photo you selected really interesting. The buildings behind the corn sellers almost look like they could be here in New York City. I immediately thought of the warehouse buildings that now make up Industry City in Sunset Park. But while there are food vendors in New York, it is in the style of their cart and their clothing that I know I am somewhere else very different than here. This is what I think is so interesting about Faigenbaum’s photography. He gives us an intimate view of Kolkata that is possible to relate to but still maintains its uniqueness and its difference.