Friday, September 26, 2014

Girl + Refugee, Muzaffarnagar Riots, Uttar Pradesh, India, December of 2013


Today is being spent scanning the images for the upcoming Tedx Talk next month, highlighting the schools for girls in India. Seeing the film images scanned takes me back to late last year, when these incredibly poignant spirits were less than two meters away from me.

On a cool morning we arrived at her camp. The very place was a result of the recent violence between Muslims and Hindus in Uttar Pradesh, all the families being refugees from such. It was quite cold actually, and the girls were shivering while they waited anxiously to be photographed. This young spirit's portrait was made toward the end of the photography. She impressed me deeply at that moment, and everyone around me knew it. Her head cover slipped a few times and I ran to her immediately.

I also remember her nose running, and we did our best to help. She allowed us to do so, but also was deeply shy and pulled away several times. The fine line between wanting to make a beautiful portrait for her and to also to document her as she presented was made quite clear to me during this portrait. In only a few minutes she taught me a lesson to last a lifetime.

www.halimina.org

Note: This image was made with a Hasselblad 555 ELD/180 mm combination, onto Fuji Neopan Acros 100 ISO film.

No comments:

Post a Comment