Diwan Manna (born in 1958 in Punjab, India) has shown his photographs in many European countries, including the United Kingdom, Germany and France. Among his most spectacular successes was the exhibition at the prestigious Galerie Bateau Lavoir in Paris, in 2001, which was very warmly received by the critics and public.
Manna’s photographs possess a highly painterly quality. The ways of framing the subject, suggestive colours and sophisticated motifs are reminiscent of Symbolist painting. His metaphorical pictures seduce the spectators with their mysterious mood and visionary character. Their artistic diction combines the photographer’s profound philosophical conviction about the goodness of human nature, his faith in the age-old humanistic values, like love, friendship or happiness, his unquenchable passion for experimentation and quest for new means of expression. The use of solarisation and the juxtaposition of fragments in the negative and in the positive within one print give the photos a unique, inimitable flavour which challenges the supposed “generic purity” of photography. Diwan manna does not confront the viewers with a hostile reality. In defiance of the widespread violence (also in art), he strives to stir up hope in the audience. His works do not record situations, but tell a story of symbols, gestures and signs.
The exhibition of Diwan Manna’s intriguing and captivating photographs coincides with the Month of Photography, which begins in Cracow on 21 October.
