A walk down the stairs of Alliance Francaise in Gurgaon and one is welcomed by photographs that belong to a strange world. A man wearing a black suit and tie looks at the sky from a wooden balcony emerging from the bay of Hong Kong. Titled Balcony 2,the photograph defies the law of gravity and logic. Then there are others with this man walking on a tree bark at an angle of 90 degrees,reading a newspaper underwater and standing horizontally on the side of a cliff. This is The Upside Down World of French conceptual artist Philippe Ramette that showcases a host of topsy-turvy self portraits of the artist. It is easy to think that these photographs have been carefully photoshopped,but the fact that they were never retouched and all of it is not a trick,make them more intriguing. The visitors at the exhibition can be seen tilting their heads at all angles to understand his gravity-defying photographs. Born in 1961,Ramette is a French sculptor and photographer who is popular for his offbeat innovations that showcase his experiments with weightlessness,gravity and landscape,in turn delivering thought-provoking pictures. What remains invisible in the pictures are the hidden metal supports called sculptor structures which he designs himself for support during shoots for some surreal images that take months of planning for a single shoot. All of Ramettes photographs have been shot by his friend and photographer Marc Domage,with whom he has worked for 20 years. Most of these have been a result of images he has previously seen in his dreams, says Flora Boillot,Cultural Co-Ordinator at Institut Français En Inde For the series Rational Exploration of the Undersea that shows him walking underwater and lying down as if he was on land,Boillot adds that Ramette hired a team of divers who supplied him with oxygen. He had to wait for the bubbles to settle down and the divers to move out of the frame for every shot to be taken, she says. In Balcony 2,he had to change his suit 20 times as it used to get wet due to the waves. This is Ramettes first exhibition in India to mark the French National Day on July 14 in collaboration with the French Embassy. The photographs will be displayed in eight states including Chennai,Calcutta,Delhi,Bangalore and Pune later this year. The exhibition in on at Alliance Francaise,S-24/8,DLF Phase 3,Gurgaon till July 28. Contact 01244-218113
