By Rina Chandran
BANGKOK, April 9 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – A photographic exhibition in Paris aims to capture both the rapid growth of an Indian city and the deep divide in the South Asian giant’s urban centres, where the poor can only aspire to live in the gleaming properties they build or clean.
“Bad City Dreams” features about 20 photographs of Gurugram, a satellite town about 30 kilometres (19 miles) southwest of New Delhi, by Paris-based Arthur Crestani.
The pictures show construction workers, villagers and vendors posing against large, glossy advertisements for luxury developments, with construction sites looming behind them.
“I wanted to show how the real estate market is shaping dreams and desires, the idea of home and city, which is in total contrast to the reality of Indian cities,” said Crestani, who first went to Delhi as an exchange student in 2010.
“The language and visuals of the ads are so exuberant – all lush settings and serene lives. But they are fantasised versions that are not representative of the reality, and do not include the workers and the villagers,” he said.
