The exhibition presents a dialogue between 19th-century British colonial photography and contemporary work by the French-Sri Lankan artist Vasantha Yogananthan.

The Rijksmuseum photography collection holds some 1200 images from 19th-century India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan and Tibet. Many of these images were commissioned for European and American audiences who knew very little about the countries and regions they depict. The photographs supposedly presented an objective view of the world, but now we can see how they clearly reflected the interests of the people who commissioned them.

Crossings presents the selection of colonial images alongside photographs by Yogananthan, who, more than a century later, visited the same areas to explore his own background.

Vasantha Yogananthan

Vasantha Yogananthan’s work builds on the rich photographic tradition that has evolved in the subcontinent. This show presents part of Yogananthan’s series A myth of two souls, for which the photographer travelled 13 times to India, Nepal and Sri Lanka, exploring how ancient stories, myths and traditions impact on the present day.