Vasantha Yogananthan’s photographic practice addresses the space between documentary and fiction. Using natural light and analog processes, he perceives photography as a malleable material open to interpretations. The book has been central to his work since the beginning. In his books, he interweaves staged photography with scenes from everyday life, thus exploring different forms of photographic storytelling. In 2014, he co-founded the publishing house Chose Commune and published his first book, Piémanson, a series shot over five summers on the last wild beach in France (2009-2013).

Subsequently, his seven-book project, A Myth of Two Souls (2013-2021), explored the space between reality and fiction inspired by the epic Indian tale, The Ramayana. A Myth of Two Souls received solo exhibitions at the Musée de l’élysée (Lausanne, 2019), the Chanel Nexus Hall (Tokyo, 2019), Deck (Singapore, 2020), and Belfast Photo Festival (2023).

Yogananthan has received several awards, including the Prix Levallois (2016) and an ICP Infinity Award as Emerging Photographer of the Year (2017). That same year Yogananthan was selected in the FOAM Talents program. In 2019 and 2021, his books Dandaka and Amma were respectively awarded the Rencontres d’Arles Photo-Text Book Award and the Juror’s special mention at the Paris Photo Aperture Foundation Photobooks Award. In 2022, Yogananthan was selected for Immersion, a French-American photography commission by the Fondation d’entreprise Hermès in partnership with the Henri Cartier-Bresson Foundation (Paris) and the International Center of Photography (New York City). Since 2020, Yogananthan has also been working on a new project in the south of France supported by a grant from the Pollock-Krasner Foundation. This project is scheduled to be exhibited at The Rencontres d’Arles festival in 2024.

Yogananthan’s works are included in private and public collections, including the Victoria and Albert Museum (London), the Centre National des Arts Plastiques (Paris), the FRAC Paca (Marseille), The Musée de l’Elysée (Lausanne), and the FOAM Museum (Amsterdam).

Vasantha’s works are available for purchase.

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Vasantha Yogananthan’s past clients include The Good Life, Guerlain, M Le Magazine du Monde, Mame Kurogouchi, Paris Saint Germain Football Club, Vogue China, and The Wall Street Journal, among others.

Vasantha is located in Marseille, France and is available for commissions worldwide.
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