Seeing these images one year after they were made is a feeling almost impossible to describe. This week is being spent finishing the scans of almost 1,200 rolls, from last year's visits to India and Cuba. Long story short, it took this long because of complications arising from the manufacturing process… and so to see the portraits of these two boys come out well is an incredible feeling.
The boys live in a slum located under a metro station, and belong to a population of migrants here to do what they can to survive. As one walks along the slum hundred of flies appear in response to one's footprints. These children endure the most difficult of existences on a daily basis, yet have the strength to wake up each day. Their parents work in the neighboring areas as rickshaw drivers, as workers in factories and housemaids. As the business class uses the metro station above them to head to their air-conditioned offices, these families face the very definition of a dystopia every hour of their lives.
Fortunately Humana India has been working in this neighborhood for many years and is making an impact. They have set up a vocational training center, help the migrant community secure its right in this new environment, run a homeless shelter and pick up as many people as possible off of the streets in order to bring them back to a hospitable place. They are doing the work which the state should be doing, and ask for nothing in return.
I am proud to be associated with the team in this project, and applaud Jayanta Bhakat for leading the efforts!
Note: These images were made with a Hasselblad 555 ELD/180 mm combination and scanned for proofing only.
No comments:
Post a Comment