Photographic Reimagining of Ancient Hindu Tale 🕉

Vasantha Yogananthan’s Sri Lankan father used to read him stories from the Ramayana, ancient Hindu poetry, about the life of Rama, the legendary prince of Kosala Kingdom when he was a child in France.

Its stories of courage, duty, and love are still recited and enacted in religious festivals and annual festivities all over India thousands of years later.

Vasantha has retraced Rama’s legendary route from north to south India for A Myth Of Two Souls, a photographic reimagining of the classic tale that sits somewhere between documentary, fiction, mythology, and reality, drawing inspiration from the impact of this omnipresent cultural myth on everyday Indian life.

The series interweaves fictitious and historical stories, ancient and modern customs, using artistically produced portraits. In addition to big colour prints, Vasantha’s images have been carefully hand-painted in black and white — a technique usually reserved for affluent patrons’ household portraits but subverted in Vasantha’s photographs.

Vasantha’s work is generally created over extended periods, utilising a specific colour palette based on natural light, employing big or medium format cameras that purposely slow down the creative process.

You may also be interested in

  • Franco Fontana ( b.1933 ) Italian Photographer – Abstracted Urbanity

    Franco Fontana ( b.1933 ) Italian Photographer – Abstracted Urbanity

    Fontana has shot advertisements for brands such as Fiat, Volkswagen, Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane, Snam, Sony, Volvo, Versace, Canon, Kodak, Robe di Kappa, Swissair, and the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and The New York Times.Read More →

  • Cecil Beaton (1904 – 1980) British interior designer

    Cecil Beaton (1904 – 1980) British interior designer

    The house he occupied until 1945 at Ashcombe, Wiltshire, near friend Edith Olivier was decorated with limited funds using exaggerated baroque furniture. The walls of the ‘Circus Bedroom’ were painted by visiting artist friends, including Rex Whistler and Oliver Messel, in a kind of Surrealistic overstatement.Read More →

  • Why was Wallace Nutting a household name in the 1920s?

    Why was Wallace Nutting a household name in the 1920s?

    Wallace Nutting was a Congregational minister who was a household name in the 1920s due to his calendars, greeting cards, and museum houses. He was an expert on early American life and brought back interest in and appreciation for 18th-century American decorative arts and furniture.Read More →

  • Cristina Coral – Award-Winning Italian Photographer

    Cristina Coral – Award-Winning Italian Photographer

    She has lived her childhood in an artistic environment. She loves to explore the complex relationship between subject and environment. She has collaborated with a variety of magazines and brands.Read More →

  • Oscar Barnack (1879 – 1936) and the first 35mm camera

    Oscar Barnack (1879 – 1936) and the first 35mm camera

    The Leica 1, the first functional 35 mm camera, was introduced in Germany in 1925, making photography much more accessible to the general public.Read More →

  • Beautiful Portraits of Newborn Babies 👶 Snuggling With Baby Animals

    Beautiful Portraits of Newborn Babies 👶 Snuggling With Baby Animals

    London based photographer Sujata Setia‘s latest series features snoozing babies with baby animals, capturing the adorable twosomes in all their adorableness. Her series was inspired by her puppy, Mustang, who is so adorable that clients would often ask Sujata if he could be a part of their child’s photoshoot.Read More →

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.