What do our own Chandigarh, and Firminy in the heart of France have in common? If you are thinking ‘nothing’, you are in for a surprise. Putting the point across is ‘Indo-French Glances’, a visual narrative of these two cities as seen through the eyes of outsiders. The rationale of the exchange? To capture what a local artist could overlook.

Titled ‘Regards Croises’ in French, this narrative is the culmination of an exchange programme that began in May 2004. A whole bunch of organisations have come together in making this project possible – the French Embassy in India, Chandigarh Tourism, the Alliance Francaise, Apparao Galleries and Saint Etienne Metropole, France. But, it does make you wonder. Why club Chandigarh with Firminy? Well, the link that connects these two geographically and culturally far flung cities is the creative mind of late Le Corbusier, that icon of modern architecture.

Chandigarh and Firminy
Le Corbusier had a hand in shaping both these cities. Firminy happens to be Le Corbusier’s second largest architectural accomplishment, after Chandigarh. Courtesy Jawaharlal Nehru, who roped in Corbusier to create a futuristic modern city in Independent India, Chandigarh’s fame as a planned city is well known. Le Corbusier then went on to design Firminy, located near Saint Etienne in the middle of France. In 1965, he died before he could complete it. Construction was revived 40 years after his death and the city was formally inaugurated in 2006, along with this collection of photographs.

It’s quite literally a tale of two cities – through images. The images are saved from becoming documentary, because we get to watch it through two contrasting perspectives: Chandigarh through the lens of French photographer Michel Dieudonne and Firminy through the camera of Chandigarh-based Diwan Manna. You get to see the cities through different perspectives, choices of location, styles, and of course techniques. So Diwan travelled to Firminy and Dieudonne to Chandigarh, taking pictures of the people and the architecture in these two places. The duo trailed through the streets of two cities they had never been to before, snapping up shots of whatever scenes and spaces they fancied.

The architectural forays of Le Corbusier – his sense of lines, scale and space – do of course come through in these photographs. “There’s not much difference in the spirit of Corbusier in Firminy and Chandigarh,” Michel Dieudonne had surmised when he visited Chandigarh. Of course, the images come enmeshed with the spirit of its two peoples, and the air and light quality in these two points on the planet stand out starkly. The photographs were presented to the people of Firminy in October 2006, before being shown to the people of Chandigarh. Indo-French Glances will promote understanding and tourism between the two places, Manna expresses. “I was in France four times for the photo shoots, and a fifth time to present the images. The response was tremendous.  The French were very enthusiastic about the look of Chandigarh.”

Point of view – artist vs architect
Michel Dieudonne studied architecture at Saint-Etienne, France and has been focusing on architecture in his career as a photographer. “He has explored the city from an architect’s point of view, but in a unique manner,” commends Manna.  “I wanted to show pictures of real architecture and not just impressions,” Michel says.

Michel has focused on three major aspects of Chandigarh; it’s grandeur as a capital city, the Le Corbusier effect and the people of the city. “The city has many facets and you can’t know it or the life of its people in a 20-day photo shoot,” Michel states. Michel relies on quality, rather than quantity - he hasn’t taken two many shots. “I liked taking pictures of the Open Hand and Capitol Complex,” Michel says.

Manna, who incidentally studied art at Chandigarh’s Government College of Arts, has focused on capturing the Firminy not as an architectural entity in terms of shapes and volume, but more on its shades, lights and moods. Diwan concedes this and adds, “There are already so many images of Corbusier’s monuments, so I wanted to look at his buildings from an artist’s point of view, to capture the music that resonates in his buildings.”

For instance, Manna highlights the rays of light inside the Saint Pierre Church, to create spectacular frames, rather than looking at its angles. Manna has captured Firminy’s Saint Pierre Church the way no one has, praises Michel.

The twain?
So, how do the two cities compare? “People in France show the same reverence to well designed modern buildings like Corbusier’s as we in India would show to ancient monuments,” observes Diwan. On the whole, even ordinary French citizens are more conscious about architecture than us Indians, he observes.

As cities, Chandigarh and Firminy are not on the same plane. While Chandigarh is a completely planned city, Firminy is a city which had existed for long, though Corbusier later entered the scene to shape it. Both the sets of photographs remain vividly colourful, showcasing the sense of style and symmetry that modern architecture can evoke. The duo have frozen on camera the touch of both light and shadow and the play of size and scale, giving us a sense of the spaces in these cities. Alongside the brick and mortar, the images also bring out a sense of the lives of the peoples living in these cities.

The photographs will be on view at the Alliance Francaise, Bangalore till March 16.