ISSUE 132 THE TRAVEL ISSUE OCTOBER 2016 RICHARD BRANSON RICHARD GALLERY GALLERY Gallery Photos by Simon Chaput When I arrived to New York, in 1983, I came And because it’s a museum and a lot of directly to SoHo. I met Christo a couple of Indians go, people were everywhere. days after being there and we quickly became It was all shot during the day, because friends. He needed somebody to take care you only get that real contrast and shadow of his next project, happening in Paris in ’85. when the light is really strong. Shooting in Through this, I became completely immersed black-and-white gets rid of all the noise. in the downtown Manhattan art scene. I just waited. I’d see a group of people As told to Nate Storey Christo and Jeanne-Claude were having din- coming along and sit down. They’d leave ners with everybody from Andy Warhol to and I’d have a one- or two-minute opportu- Robert Rauschenberg. One of the people I nity. I’d take one shot and move to another met through them was Isamu Noguchi, who place. It took me four days to get the pho - was a beautiful, gentle soul. tographs. I have the patience needed for Noguchi and I talked a lot, and I told him that because I’ve worked for a wonderful about my love of photography. At the time I Buddhist teacher. had given it up, because coming to the U.S., The Jantar Mantar is a whole collection I was surviving in a different way. I was a of instruments built on the same principle: private art dealer, selling Christo’s work. astronomy. There’s one in Jaipur, one in Delhi, Noguchi told me, “Simon, if you love pho - and one in Varanasi. There are five total—the tography so much, why aren’t you doing it?” other two are in Ujjain and Mathura. The one As soon as I sold a couple of Christo’s pieces, in Varanasi is in bad shape and very difficult I bought cameras and got into it again. I was to photograph. So I didn’t do it. The other two able to find a space on Mercer Street where are nearly destroyed. I lived for 25 years. It was large enough to I have only one color photograph of the make my own darkroom studio. Jantar Mantar—the one in Delhi—which I The Jantar Mantar, a series of five ancient shot because it looks so special and every- sundials spread across India, was a place body who sees it thinks it’s a painting. It’s that influenced Noguchi’s playgrounds. After a deep red. The one in Jaipur is sort of a hearing all of his stories about it, I happened yellow ochre color. In Delhi, all the marble to go to India in 1995. I, of course, looked up has been taken away; what’s left is concrete the Jantar Mantar and went to photograph it. that’s repainted every few years. It’s rather It’s a museum, basically, that was developed decrepit. Just by looking at these photo - in the 18th century. I just fell in love with the graphs, you know what you’re looking at. spaces. The challenge for me, because I love playing with the negative space, was finding These photographs will be published in the a way to abstract it, while also enhancing all book Jantar Mantar (Nazraeli Press), coming the beautiful shapes of these instruments. out this fall. SURFACE 198 199 132_GALLERY.indd 198 9/16/16 8:33 PM 132_GALLERY.indd 199 9/16/16 8:33 PM GALLERY GALLERY SURFACE 200 201 132_GALLERY.indd 200 9/16/16 8:33 PM 132_GALLERY.indd 201 9/16/16 8:33 PM GALLERY GALLERY SURFACE 202 203 132_GALLERY.indd 202 9/16/16 8:33 PM 132_GALLERY.indd 203 9/16/16 8:33 PM GALLERY GALLERY SURFACE 204 205 132_GALLERY.indd 204 9/16/16 8:33 PM 132_GALLERY.indd 205 9/16/16 8:33 PM GALLERY GALLERY SURFACE 206 207 132_GALLERY.indd 206 9/16/16 8:33 PM 132_GALLERY.indd 207 9/16/16 8:33 PM GALLERY GALLERY SURFACE 208 209 132_GALLERY.indd 208 9/16/16 8:33 PM 132_GALLERY.indd 209 9/16/16 8:33 PM GALLERY GALLERY SURFACE 210 211 132_GALLERY.indd 210 9/16/16 8:34 PM 132_GALLERY.indd 211 9/16/16 8:34 PM GALLERY GALLERY SURFACE 212 213 132_GALLERY.indd 212 9/16/16 8:34 PM 132_GALLERY.indd 213 9/16/16 8:34 PM.