LATE COLOUR
From notes gathered by Kevin Lemaire/Contretype (translated from French):
Mahesh Shantaram was born in Bangalore (now Bengaluru) in India. Having obtained a degree in Computer Electronics, he changed his career plans and went to Paris to study photography. He was a member of the noted Agence VU’ from 2017 to 2020.
He is known for his critical, enlightened documentary style, especially when examining the complex mechanisms of Indian society. For example, “The African Portraits” (2017) examined the problem of racism suffered by black Africans in India.
After periods as photographer-in-residence in Cardiff (Wales) in 2011 and in New Delhi in 2016, he was invited by Contretype–centre d’art pour l’image et la photographie contemporaine to take up a residency in Brussels in 2017. For him, this was an opportunity to rediscover the country he had explored and come to admire in the 1990s, while on an exchange programme organised by the University of Namur.
This is the portfolio he produced during this residency: the photos were taken during a series of walks around the city and its surroundings between 9pm and 1am. He had underestimated the strength of daylight in summer in the northern hemisphere, and found it impossible to work in it, hence his choice of working in the late evening and at night. This semi-nocturnal daily rhythm allowed him to walk the streets and take photos in solitude, which he enjoyed enormously.
Mahesh Shantaram has created images of a depopulated Brussels in the twilight that convey his sense of intense freedom, which would be impossible in the overcrowded cities of India.
