Zooming in on truth

Sebastian Cortés says he likes combining words with photographs because he is a frustrated writer

November 15, 2012 07:39 pm | Updated 07:39 pm IST - Bangalore

NO SPECIFIC AGENDA Sebastian Cortés Photo: G.P. Sampath Kumar

NO SPECIFIC AGENDA Sebastian Cortés Photo: G.P. Sampath Kumar

Photographer Sebastian Cortés’s recently launched coffee-table book Pondicherry is nostalgic, without being obvious.

“Even though,” he says, “for me it is the obvious because I live there, so I try to find out what’s interesting in the obvious.”

He feels that working on the book, which is composed of his photographs of the inner recesses of Puducherry (Pondicherry) alongside writings by Pascal Bruckner, Akash Kapur, and Amin Jaffer, was challenging because it was done in his spare time. That was partly why the project was based nearby.

“Second, it was important that I had access to the locations I wanted to shoot in, which were mainly homes and I had a lot of interesting contacts with people that were very willing to help me out. The French community was enthused by someone taking interest at various levels of ideas trying to make a project that was not just photogenic but also anthropological.”

The project took over five years to complete since it was done in spare time and also because artistic photography is third on his priority list, with fashion photography and travel photography (respectively) taking the lead.

“I don’t snub commercial photography, I think that there can be a balance between both. What I like about fashion is that it’s total fantasy, total pageantry, where the photographer is playing. There is a certain pressure and worry, but it’s still wonderful because of the pageantry,” he explains.

“Whereas artistic photography is a continuous process. Galleries and publishers always come into the picture and so there is a constant worry even though there is recognition. Then again there is there is economic recognition in the commercial world.”

Balancing the two, he observes, is a discipline that requires a certain training that comes only from experience. His experience has also given him the skill to work with guidelines, to let the moment unfold, rather than work with a tightly controlled creative process. Sebastian has employed this form of “straight photography” in his Pondicherry series.

“I did not plan anything. I was trying not to push forward a specific agenda, except that I wanted to get in there. Then I just let the dynamic reveal itself because I wanted to get as close to the truth, if it exists. The moment you point a camera one way or another, the moment you adulterate the image with pose-production, the truth slyly and slowly disappears.”

This form of photography, is a part of his conscious intent to remain contemporary, not in the sense of style, but in the method. At the same time Sebastian also intends to remain nostalgic in mood. Many facets of his work with Pondicherry will be reflected in his upcoming book on Sidhpur, a “sleepy, forgotten” town in Gujarat. This project too, like Pondicherry, will involve a book.

“I am a frustrated writer, like I’m a frustrated architect. I admire people who can write and I like to see how I can motivate the process of writing, the fantasy of writing and the mechanism of writing, with my work. In this project, for instance, I told these authors that I was interested in having a collaboration but I would want them to look at the images and see if they wanted to collaborate with me,” he shares.

“I like that recognition and that moment of contact. I like to see what intelligent people, who have been assigned the role of intellectuals, react. I want them to react only from the images and if they do, that’s great and they don’t need to take the plunge if they don’t.”

An exhibition of his photographs on Pondicherry “Sebastian Cortés: Pondicherry” will be on display at Cinnamon, 11 Walton Road, off Lavelle Road until November 30.

For details, contact 022-22048138.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.