Snapshots of India

A devilishly photogenic country, India has long appeared to us as draped, even fetishized, in an aura of mysticism, contrast, and color. Exotic, postcolonial, and romantically appealing, its economic development could only be rapid, its poverty picturesque, and its landscapes timeless.

In recent decades, the evolution of this vast country, which became a democracy in 1950, has advanced on all fronts. India is booming. It has surpassed one billion inhabitants, half of whom are under 35 years old. It is innovating, exporting its engineers, and now has more billionaires than China. It is also consuming, investing in real estate, leisure, and is poised to lift the taboos inherited from a still very conservative society.

Indian photographers naturally stand as prime witnesses to the economic, social, and cultural shifts. Now, India and Indians are seeing themselves differently, through the lens of several families of contemporary photographers.

What perspectives do these photographers offer on the transformations of their society, their environment, their identities, their families?

To answer this, these films open windows onto the pioneering photographic works of present-day India. In doing so, it is no longer us who seek out a distant, spiritual, and fascinating world. It is that world, with new representations of itself, that comes to us.