A photo exhibition by Eric Chacra at Centre D'Art
Pictures from being before in Auroville
A photo exhibition by Eric Chacra
At Centre dArt, Citadines
From October 3 – 15 2018
With Eric Chacra life expresses itself in a click – the moment is caught red-handed.
In these 27 photographs, taken over the last 15 years, there is a light hearted, humourous quality, and, if you want to smile, I suggest you go to his first exhibition in Auroville taking place right now at Centre dArt, Citadines.
This amateur photographer loves street photography and every picture is spontaneous, natural and authentic. Paris is recognizable in most of them – according to him, Paris is a very difficult place to practice street photography since people are more concerned with their image, compared to places like Berlin or India where people will tend to smile and be more cooperative. He laughingly recalls an instance when a French man yelled at him because he took a photograph of his 2 dogs.
What gives Erics photography its purity and charm is that, when a photo is taken, Eric disappears! This is the instant when the moment is caught – finite and limited and, at the same time, remaining infinite and unlimited.
And
after the click
. the observation of what was and the ego. He calls it an extraordinarily meditative moment, when life truly expresses itself
.real art. A moment of le lacher prise, Eric explains, the letting go of everything. He has nowhere to go and nothing to gain, only an absolute collaboration with what is unavoidable.
This fascinating philosophical way of taking photographs has been developed by Eric over the last 30 years of practicing photography, martial arts (judo, karate, aikido) and classical music. He speaks of Bernstein and I find the analogy with the famous pianist beautiful. Bernstein (and Eric) nourished his art through involvement with the human adventure.
I imagine the smile on the faces of visitors to this exhibition, especially while looking at the two smoking teenagers dressed as angels and at the man with a tattoo on his back saying real life. They are brilliant in their composition and touching in the veracity of the act; mostly they are great because they are art and heart. Enjoy!