In Geoff Dyer’s Otherwise Known as the Human Condition, there is a piece called “Jacques Henri Lartigue and the Discovery of India.” It opens with a Lartigue photo “Cap d’Antibes, August 1953”—a woman in a bathing suit reclined on a deck chair, hair wild, possibly wrapped in foil, reading a book titled The Discovery of India by Jawaharlal Nehru. Dyer opens his discussion of the photograph with an epigraph, a quotation from Nehru:
You can hardly expect me to fall in love with a photograph.
My response to this epigraph is clear: On the contrary, Mr. Nehru, as a photographer, I am offended that someone would declare themselves disinclined to fall in love with a photograph, especially if it’s my photograph.
While I was visiting Singapore in January, 2016, the Asian Civilisations Museum was installing a bust of Jawaharlal Nehru on its grounds. Perhaps with a vengeful sentiment, I photographed it while the face was still covered in plastic wrapping. I hope you love it.
