The Other Face of Luxury

In fact,his painstaking documentation of the Hermès universe — that took him over seven years — is now being celebrated through an exhibition at the luxury brand’s Mumbai store. On till July 15,the exhibition features 30 photographs from his 11 volume series of La Maison. Each of these volumes focusses on one particular metier of the brand. For instance,the book Saddles is a collection of photos of the saddle-making workshop at 24,Faubourg Saint-Honore in Paris. Kelly Bag captures the craftsmanship and the process of making the Kelly bag,just as Clothes is about different workshops and Silk tracks the processes involved in making a silk scarf.

“When I started out,I didn’t know how to take photographs of the craftsmen. My approach was to become an imaginary apprentice by sitting in a corner and watching before I even clicked the button of my camera. I listened to sounds,smelled the air,touched surfaces,understood the textures and built a rapport with the craftsmen,” he explains.

However,the person who challenged him the most is Jean-Claude Ellena,the perfume composer. Calling him “a tough gentleman to crack”,Bolofo remembers the time he turned up at Ellena’s studio in the south of France. “He said there was nothing I could photograph as one could not capture smell with a camera. I’d like to believe that he was wrong,because when you look at my photographs,you sense that each photograph has a perfume of its own,” he says.