An open book: Harry Gruyaert's India

[TIL #21] "India is a mystery of which you can bear witness."

At home, i use a couple of small easels to keep photobooks open for a few days or occasionally a few weeks. It is a way to engage into a longer dialogue with some of the images. And at the moment, one of the open books is …

Harry Gruyaert, India, Editions Xavier Barral, 2020.

I do not think that Harry Gruyaert needs much of an introduction: he is a well-known artist and a Magnum photographer. There is a good 2018 documentary film about him that you can rent or buy on Vimeo. By way of an extremely short biographical note: born in Belgium in 1941, he felt a need to escape from a strict catholic upbringing and explore Europe and the world through colour photography.

In the opening text, Gruyaert explains how he feels about India: it is a mystery of which you can bear witness. The photographs are from about ten trips he made over 40 years. On his first trip in 1976, his telelens was stolen, which changed his approach to photography and forced him to get closer to the people. He writes, “i realize now that i know nothing of this country, which is too vast and too complex, but that it has given me a lot.”

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The book includes several passages from the Dictionnaire amoureux de l’Inde by French novelist and screenwriter Jean-Claude Carrière. I particularly liked the last sentences of this one:

L'Inde n'est pas un pays charmant, à commencer par les paysages. À part le Nord, où l'approche de l'Himalaya, sur des centaines de kilomètres, bouleverse les yeux, le reste nous parait plutôt monotone: un grand plateau vivant de l'ocre au vert, des collines arrondies, quelques rochers gris dans le Sud, pyramides de pierre au milieu des rizières.

India is not a charming country, starting with its landscapes. Apart from the North, where the approach of the Himalayas over hundreds of kilometres is a sight to behold, the rest of the country seems rather monotonous: a vast plateau that varies from ochre to green, rounded hills and a few grey rocks in the South, stone pyramids in the middle of rice paddies.

À vrai dire, le paysage s'oublie vite, tant la présence humaine s'impose, et s'impose partout. Si nous n'aimons pas les hommes, n'allons pas en Inde. Il est impossible de visiter cette République singulière dans un vase clos, dans un car de touristes qui nous emmènerait de monument en monument, les yeux fermés sur le pays lui-même et sur les peuples. Exploit inconcevable, irréalisable. La foule est ici le paysage principal. Elle est l'acteur de toutes choses. C'est pourquoi sans doute, dans la littérature indienne de tous les temps, les personnages sont souvent attirés par l'exil et la solitude, le renoncement, le départ: par la fatigue de l'homme.

Truth be told, the landscape is quickly forgotten, with human presence imposing itself so intensely, and imposing itself everywhere. If we do not like people, let’s not go to India. It is impossible to visit this singular Republic in a vacuum, in a tourist bus that would take us from monument to monument, with our eyes closed to the country itself and its people. An inconceivable, unattainable feat. Here the crowd is the main landscape. It is the the actor of all things. This is undoubtedly why, in Indian literature of all times, the characters are often attracted by exile and solitude, renunciation, departure: by a fatigue of human beings.

Que le visiteur étranger ne s'engage pas dans cette voie de l'isolement, ce serait mon premier conseil. Qu'il n'aille pas en Inde pour n'aller nulle part. Qu'il accepte la foule, qu'il s'y mêle, qu'il s'y perde. Première condition de l'amour: le contact.

My first piece of advice is that foreign visitors should not go down this road of isolation. Let them not go to India and go nowhere. Let them accept the crowd, let them mingle with the crowd, let them lose themselves in the crowd. The first condition of love is: contact.

(Jean-Claude Carrière — translation based on DeepL.com)

Do you have a favourite Harry Gruyaert photograph? If so, you could share it in the comments (on the website or the app).

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