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Published in 2020 by Chose Commune, Afterlife is the sixth volume in French photographer Vasantha Yogananthan’s seven-part project, A Myth of Two Souls. The overarching series offers a contemporary visual retelling of the Ramayana, an ancient Indian epic, following its mythical journey from northern to southern India.
Afterlife marks a dark turn in the series as it centers on the climax of the epic: the brutal war between Prince Rama's army and the demon king Ravana's forces. Rather than emphasizing classic heroics, this volume serves as a psychological exploration of Rama’s descent into darkness and cruelty. True to its title, the story wrestles with heavy themes of warfare, mortality, spiritual transformation, and reincarnation.
To reflect the disorienting, chaotic nature of war, Yogananthan shifts away from the realistic portraiture of earlier volumes and adopts a surrealist approach. He captured imagery during the Hindu festival of Dussehra in Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu, focusing on revelers wearing theatrical costumes and painted faces who were attempting to enter trance-like states. In his studio, he cut and layered multiple photographs into surreal collages to evoke a sense of disorientation. The physical book incorporates forty shorter insert pages that overlap different photographs as the reader turns them, while the visual narrative is complemented by textual retellings and poetic interpretations by Indian author and activist Meena Kandasamy.
Published in 2020 by Chose Commune, Afterlife is the sixth volume in French photographer Vasantha Yogananthan’s seven-part project, A Myth of Two Souls. The overarching series offers a contemporary visual retelling of the Ramayana, an ancient Indian epic, following its mythical journey from northern to southern India.
Afterlife marks a dark turn in the series as it centers on the climax of the epic: the brutal war between Prince Rama's army and the demon king Ravana's forces. Rather than emphasizing classic heroics, this volume serves as a psychological exploration of Rama’s descent into darkness and cruelty. True to its title, the story wrestles with heavy themes of warfare, mortality, spiritual transformation, and reincarnation.
To reflect the disorienting, chaotic nature of war, Yogananthan shifts away from the realistic portraiture of earlier volumes and adopts a surrealist approach. He captured imagery during the Hindu festival of Dussehra in Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu, focusing on revelers wearing theatrical costumes and painted faces who were attempting to enter trance-like states. In his studio, he cut and layered multiple photographs into surreal collages to evoke a sense of disorientation. The physical book incorporates forty shorter insert pages that overlap different photographs as the reader turns them, while the visual narrative is complemented by textual retellings and poetic interpretations by Indian author and activist Meena Kandasamy.