Fondation Henri-Cartier Bresson

The Fondation Henri-Cartier Bresson is located in a small impasse in Paris near the Gare de Montparnasse. Following my visit there yesterday I've added it to my list of favorite museums in Paris that include the Rodin and Maillol museums and the Musée de la vie romantique. These museums all share one thing in common: they are small and personal. They afford you the physical space and quiet needed to really spend time with an œuvre d'art. The FHCB is like these other museums except for its modern accents. The art deco roof as the director pointed out to me is all glass and luminous.

Each year the foundation holds a competition and names a laureate. This year's winner Fazal Sheikh is also a MacArthur fellow. The foundation presents (until 26 August 2007) two series of Shaikh's work "Moksha" and "Ladli."

Moksha portrays widows in modern day Vrindavan and bears testimonies to their lives. The photographs are accompanied by text that presents these women's stories. Sheikh's touch is both light and tender at the same time. The photos are intimist, a little like being inside one of Bonnard's domestic scenes (minus the color). They suspend time. Lingering over the image of one old lady after another one senses the weight and thickness of their lives, the passing of time that marks their faces. It is this aspect of Sheikh's photography and engagement that reveals the touch of a master.

© Fazal Sheikh from Moksha

The subject of Sheikh's series Ladli is no easier, bearing witness as it does to the status of the girl child. In this series, exhibited in another hall, Sheikh's narrative texts take on a different distance. He plumbs into the causes and deep-rooted sociological and psychological reasons that contribute to the suffering of these children. The stories are always hard but Sheikh's photographs allow us to see these young girls and women without the infliction of a third person.

Fazal Sheikh's works will be on display at the Pace McGill Gallery from October 18 -November 24, 2007