In our time of image-overload, distinct aesthetics styles are few and far between. It takes a very specific type of photographer to successfully cultivate a signature and then stick to it. Enter Maansi Jain, SLEEK favourite since we first discovered her a few years ago, the 26-year-old German-born Indian/American image-maker conjures a warped world like no other, a twisted technicoloured dreamscape that (quite literally) bends the boundaries of photography and distorts whatever corners and characters she turns her lens to.
In light of her current exhibition, on display until 11 October at New York’s All About Indian Food, Maansi Jain takes us on a journey through 10 of her most eclectic works.
“I shot this at a party called La Creole in Paris. When I posted it a friend recognised her friend in it who’s actually Dominican and was studying (and hating) Paris at the time, but she looks really happy here. The title was inspired by her Instagram handle, which is @classicalmeme, so the photo is dedicated to her, but I don’t know her and I don’t know if she knows her face is on a wall in an Indian restaurant in Bushwick.”
“This is a photo I shot in McCarren park of a very close friend, who’s always been a style icon but in the most understated way. That’s a San Francisco sweatshirt, and it was a beautiful summer day, and this is a cheesy photo of Parker ignoring me when it really boils down to it.”
“The title is something a lot of people have probably thought to themselves, but here it’s meant as a reference to Scarlett from Gone With the Wind, who my grandmother in India sees as a strong woman, but who also was ruled by fear almost until the end of the story.”
“This is a man made lake in a town called Grapevine, Texas, which is near where I went to high school. A friend of mine recently took me there, maybe as a little joke, because once at this same lake when I was 16 I drank 6 shots of vodka in 30 minutes alone with my high school bff just to see what it was like, like I was just trying to be a scientist but really didn’t do my research well. Curiosity killed the cat but through pure luck, not me. I don’t advise this method of research to the wider world.”
“This is a photo that I shot in Bushwick and it represents pure unsustainable, appealing excess.”
“This is a picture I feel like I’ve been making for the last 10 years — it feels like an accurate depiction of where I lived out my teen angst.”
“It’s not really funny when things go horribly wrong, but sometimes the universe, or your subconscious is just like ‘hahahaha, naw, sit down bitch’ — that’s what this is about.”
“My friend and painter Ian Faden bought and named this picture. He saw it hanging and exclaimed! ‘Are those gooey cum hands?!’ and somehow it was clear that they had to be and, whether the truth was any different, I could hardly say and it hardly mattered now because what he said sounded right for the work too. My own experience with the photo was that I thought it was hideous for a long time but it is my own hands.”
“sorry 4 being so blind is a deflection and a pun and a photo of a portal to forbidden fun; it’s the window I used to occasionally sneak out of as a teen.”
“This is the image on the flyer of the exhibition, and I think it does kind of represent what ‘tomatoluv’ could be, which is just community spirit. I’m making this shit up as I write this but it sounds true now (is being an artist just flexing your own agency and waking people up to their own? I wonder rhetorically) I just happen to like tomatoes and I do genuinely love community spirit so why not conflate the two in my work. The tomatoes were grown by my friend’s mother Esther in long beach. They are delicious and she served them for lunch on sandwiches. And it was only because of my supportive friends (who helped with everything from printing the show text to DJing to helping to handle the pieces) that this whole show even came together. I really would be nothing without the communities I’m part of and that’s what this picture means to me.”