Banjara Girls, Alwar District, Rajasthan, India, November 6, 2009

This is my fourth year with these girls and their small community. My work with them has spanned two foundations, beginning with Humana People to People India and presently with Nirvanavan Foundation. At this time, they lack a school, live in tents, lack water and electricity and live on land that is in question according to the folks living in the town nearby.

The surrounding community wants them to leave and have made that quite clear. In great thanks to Nirvanavan Foundation, a case has been made on their behalf in the court system and now their voices are being heard. This community lacks land, ration cards and the ability to vote as well.

Since the beginning, they have heard from me that they will never be forgotten, regardless of their status with the foundations. Last year, with the great help of Nirvanavan Foundation, we found them and continued our documentation.

On this day, we arrive with their photographs from last year and hand them out to the children. At first, the men are a little hesitant to allow the photography. After the good people of the foundation speak to them for a little bit, the girls line up and wait for their photographs to be made. They all know that they will receive their pictures before my departure this year.

We make a studio with the materials given to us and portraits shorty thereafter. The girls are just wonderful, in light of the difficulties surrounding them. It is glances like theirs that keep me going. When you look at this picture, do you see their faces? Do you see the love in their eyes, their smiles?

I do.

You have my thanks for taking the time to read this blog, it tells their stories to the best of my ability. I hope that the pictures do better.

Thank you on their behalf.

Grandmother, Banganga, Rajasthan, India, November 20, 2009

As the sun sets, this portrait is made.

Her first time in front of me, this is the grandmother of two wonderful women in Banganga. Her daughters have shown me the best of this large country over the past four years. One is the teacher of the Humana People to People Girls Bridge School in the village and the other a mother of six children, four of whom have become central to my photography in Rajasthan, with two being a bit young to have their portraits made as of this day.

All in all, seven girls from these two families are involved in my photography for Humana. In three of my four visits to India, my photography has ended in Banganga, Rajasthan.

On the day of my flight to the States this year, we arrange the school's girls in the home adjacent to this one. We make portraits of all, including some parents. We then move to this home for breakfast and, in the tradition of these two families, are served two meals, one from each family, along with two cups of tea in the same fashion.

The teacher makes rice with sugar and her sister makes a sweet rice pudding, even though this region of India leans heavily on bread rather than rice.

Everyone watches as the two of us eat, me and the taxi driver.

Woman, Beejwad, Rajasthan, November 5, 2009

She waits until the last minute to show her face. This afternoon, we make portraits of all the children, all the other women before she decides to have her portrait made. Every time she lifts her veil, the other women laugh and invite her to do the same, barely holding her pose for a few seconds before turning away to laugh. This time, she gave me a little more than a few seconds.

The school in this Nat Community is in its first year. It has been accepted well and the teacher seems to be happy. She shows us a wonderful classroom, one full of children eager to learn. The walls, while in need of repair perhaps, are lined with drawings of the children.

There is also another woman in the room, an assistant to the teacher. She is just as kind and serves tea to us at the end of our photography.

While the children lack even the most basic essentials, such as seats or even mats to sit upon, they are happy to have a foundation that truly shows them respect, keeps its promises and provides them with an education that will hopefully show their community a way out of the world of sex, a world that the Nat Community knows all too well.