The Flying Houses

5 TO 14 FEBRUARY

JAWAHAR KALA KENDRA

The Flying Houses, an exhibition by the French photographer Laurent Chéhère, was a clear standout at Travel Photo Jaipur, an international festival. When he was in Paris, a city where most gravitate towards grandiose structures such as the Eiffel Tower and the Notre-Dame Cathedral, Chéhère instead found himself drawn to run-down street architecture—houses, tents, trailers. In the series that resulted, he superimposed photographs of these homes against photographs of swathes of Parisian sky. Each structure stands alone in its frame, often with electrical wires spilling from it into the surrounding air. By removing the buildings from their usual bustling surroundings and placing them in such austere—yet elevated—contexts, Chéhère asks the viewer to take a closer look at these quotidian structures. When one does this, each home transforms into a story told through small details: a crack in a window pane, a scribble of graffiti on a wall, a chandelier hanging from a roof.

~ Megha Kabra