Born in 1985, Vasantha Yogananthan lives and works in Paris. He set out on a freelance career as a photographer in 2014. The same year, he co-founded the publishing house Chose Commune and published his first book, Piémanson, which was nominated for MACK First Book Award. In 2015, Vasantha Yogananthan was the recipient of the IdeasTap/Magnum Photos Award to help him fund A Myth of Two Souls, his project on the Ramayana in India.
A Myth of Two Souls – a project spanning over 7 years (2013-2019) – is a series that he believes will evolve in directions he can’t yet foresee. Moving away from the documentary genre that describes the early stages of the project, he has spent the last years working with a local artist to reviving the tradition of hand-painting. The more his practice grows, the more he perceives photography as a malleable material open to interpretations. Bookmaking and editing is central to his work and he considers the photobook to be his primary medium for research into original narrative approaches. A Myth of Two Souls will be published into 7 books. The first chapters, Early Times and The Promise, have been released in May 2016 and April 2017.
In 2017, Yogananthan has been awarded an ICP Infinity Award (Emerging Photographer of the Year).