In the politics of touch between men in India, a German artist finds ‘endless, subtle meanings’

...The expression of a well-made man appears not only in his face,
It is in his limbs and joints also, it is curiously in the joints of his hips and wrists,
It is in his walk, the carriage of his neck, the flex of his waist and knees, dress does not hide him,
The strong sweet supple quality he has strikes through the cotton and flannel;
To see him pass conveys as much as the best poem, perhaps more,
You linger to see his back and the back of his neck and shoulderside.

– Walt Whitman, “I Sing the Body Electric”

What kind of holding hands indicates a platonic friendship? Where and how do friendship and love merge? Where does friendship include a sexual relationship?

These were among the questions that took German artist Marc Ohrem-Leclef on a six-year-long journey through India after he set out to understand the many layers behind why Indian men can often be seen holding hands.

His project, titled “Zameen Aasman ka Farq” (As far apart as the Earth is from the Sky), contemplates the affection between Indian men, manifested in the holding of hands, the interlocking of pinkies and the intimate leaning into one another.

Ohrem-Leclef, who first visited India in 2009, noticed how men...

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