Two Girls, On a Rooftop, New Delhi, India, 2008

One smiles all of the time with a sense of mischief and one rarely smiles. They live in the same home, a place that provides them with a sense of security from their past, a past that includes riots and broken homes. These girls are products of religious riots from years past in their country. The day before during our dinner, the girls are told to wear their favorite dresses. They sleep in different rooms, one slightly older than the other. We arrange for the session to be on the rooftop, away from the view of the public, with a white sheet as a background, shielding them from view as well as producing this background. This is their third year of photography. The last two dozen rolls of film from this photographic assignment are used to make portraits of this home's girls, with the boys waiting patiently below for their turn. The girls wake up pretty early for the sake of an early sun, the morning ends gloriously.