Kolkata/Calcuta Exhibit

I visited the Patrick Faigenbaum: Kolkata/Calcutta Aperture Gallery. “Kolkata/Calcutta is the portrait of a city with two faces and two sides: historical and contemporary”(Jean-Francois Chevrier). It is a small city in India formerly colonized by the British Empire. When I first walked in I felt like the space was spacious, it was very welcoming. It didn’t feel intimidating or geared towards one particular audience. It was really simple with light grey flores and white walls to complement it, what I loved most was the reading area with the couches which made the gallery warmer and more inviting, they had lots of books ranging in different subjects, it was there both to purchase or just to quietly sit down, read, and enjoy. The design of the Gallery was quite simple, there were about 37 images for the Kolkata/Calcuta Gallery and these photographs were nicely spaced out so the viewer could appreciate each individual piece of work. Patrick Faigenbaum is a well known contemporary photographer based in paris, he worked in residence at the Villa Medici of French academy and worked at the Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux Arts, Paris since 2000. He spent some time in the city of Kolkata/Calcutta ranging from 2011-2014, capturing life as it happened. These photographs weren’t separated into particular categories but viewing the overall exhibit I could see that the he focused on topics involving everyday life such as their citylife, streetlife, transportation, music, family, election and also some black and grey photos. I would say his audience are people who love to travel and also appreciate culture and want to see how other people live around the world but can only take such a trip through his photography.
The subject matter of the exhibit ranged from embroidery artists, children parents as well as street workers, farmers, musicians. He captured people as they mastered their craft spent time with their children in fields. He showed a group of men gathered and watching tv in a neighborhood, things that people often take for granted. Women selling corn on the streets, fetching water from wells. He even showed a group of people with their hands gathered with their ID’s ready to vote. He captured his subjects cleaning the streets, doing things they loved making music or posing with instruments. One photograph was during Lakshmi Puja which is the festival devoted to Lakshmi Immersion of the goddess’s effigy, Babu Ghat. Another one was a simple photo of a man enjoying his afternoon nap which I related very well to . There was a lot of culture, and tradition captured, mainly simplicity in life. Nothing was fancy, there wasn’t a lot of cars, technology, nightlife, corporate workers everything was simple and ordinary. Nothing was fancy.
My Favorite photo in the Gallery was of a group of people harvesting rice, which was a medium shot taken at eye level, using the rule of thirds. There was negative space and pattern, the pattern was broken with the people who were harvesting the rice. This photograph was interesting to me because I had never seen rice being harvested and it’s one of the most popular foods in every culture that we take for granted and never stop and think of how it is produced and what labor goes into it. The people looked comfortable and you could tell they’d been doing it for some time.
This Exhibit was enjoyable as well as informative. It didn’t exactly have and emotional impact it was more of appreciation and just seeing how it is to live in a society that is a little less advanced and still maintains tradition at the same time doing whatever it takes to get through each and every day.