Student + Safety Pin, Banganga, Rajasthan, India, November, 2013

When four years separates my visits time reveals so much. We visited Banganga once again today, and walked over to the leader's home to check on his daughter. She happened to be standing next to this young girl and we invited her to be photographed also. One second's glance at her features reminded me of a young girl from my last visit four years ago, perhaps her age at the time. Through my friend I asked if she had an older sister. She was surprised at the question but smiled at the same time, knowing that her sister was photographed by me four years ago. She walked inside to call her sister who then stepped outside smiling also. These are the experiences that make this work that much more enjoyable.

We celebrate that the school in her village has been reopened through a collaboration with Humana People to People India. She and her sisters can now attend classes once again, pick up those small pieces of chalk and scribble their names on the portable chalkboards in their delicate hands. The circle has been maintained, the work has come to represent the very people in the images.

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Young Girl + Student, In the Kitchen, Banganga, Rajasthan, India, November 20, 2009

She is taking the place of her mother in the kitchen and preparing a meal for her family at the end of the day. Her village has adopted a solar lantern project in cooperation with Humana People to People India and Lighting a Billion Lives (LaBL). Rather than perform her duties in the dark or next to a kerosene lantern, she does so with the efficiency and safety of this solar lantern.

Over four years I have visited this village, and perhaps four to five times during each of those years. Sometimes we would visit just to enjoy time with the families, and sometimes to make portraits. During my last visit it was possible to document more so their lives, and this gives me great inspiration to do much more of the same later this year.

This young girl lives with her family next to her aunt's house, and shares a substantial plot of farming land with her cousins. Sometimes it is hard to tell them apart, and to differentiate to which family each girl belongs. They act with such love towards each other that at least to me it is one large, extended family. She is the shyest of her sisters, and speaks mostly with smiles as in the picture above.

Over the years I have written much about this village, and a quick search above will lead the reader to other stories and images from Banganga, Rajasthan. It is one of my favorite places in the world and a place to which I will return year after year until my legs are unable to carry me. 

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Halim Ina Photography

Father, Shower, Humana People to People, Banganga, Rajasthan, November, 2007

This man and his family have treated me since day one as one of their own. On my visits to Humana People to People India they are the first family visited by me and the last. My experiences with them are incomparable, as they continuously seem to outdo themselves with respect to showing their love to me.

Upon arrival I am greeted with the most incredible smiles, from all of the members of this family. They are genuinely excited to work with me without reservation. From providing the perfect background to allowing spontaneous visits, they go out of their way to make it most ideal.

His sister-in-law is responsible for the school sponsored by Humana People to People India, and organizes the girls perfectly. From their wonderful uniforms to the perfectly combed hair, there is a deep sense of pride in the presentation. The girls are usually waiting for us while sitting for class, and have never made my work difficult. Working here is about as peaceful of an experience as my mind can recollect at this very moment.

In the image above he is taking a quick shower after working diligently in the field straight behind him. His house is behind me to my right, and the spot of our first session in this village six years ago is straight ahead perhaps less than twenty meters. He was surprised that I wanted to make this picture and, according to his incredible character, went ahead and paused for a few seconds to allow me to do so. This is the smile that greets me upon arrival, and one can sense his brotherly love through the gentle countenance.

In Banganga, Rajasthan we hope to once again open the doors to the Humana People to People India school in 2013. Most of the girls from my last visit will hopefully be attending classes in the government school system since the nation has enacted legislation overseeing a government school in every single village. Our goal however is to tend to the girls older than the cutoff age, and devoid of education in their lives.

The need is great, and the project is quite urgent. Should you, the reader of this blog, find an interest in joining us more information can be found through my website. You can also contact me directly through my email and find me quite interested in your thoughts.

halim.ina@gmail.com
Halim Ina Photography

Student and Brother, Humana People to People, Banganga, Rajasthan, India, Afternoon of November 15, 2009

Her portrait is the most elusive from her family. While she is most willing to be photographed, her light eyes are unable to work in the sunlight that so accentuates my work. Here she sits with her brother in the field in front of her home, as the sun was setting.

She alone will change my work during my next visit and enable me to work indoors, in the shade of trees and so forth. She will extend the nature of my work, and this excites me incredibly. Her aunt is the teacher of the local Humana People to People school in her village, and the two families together treat me like a son.

Upon every visit both families prepare tea, and then either lunch or dinner. They live right next to each other with the closest neighbor in the invisible distance. They tend to their land without help from anyone else, and are never found sitting, always working actually. This is my fourth year with these families and my experiences with them have been marked by both extremes.

To be clear my time with them has been nothing short of magnificent. They and their neighbors have always welcomed my photography and all of the children have always been prepared. They have allowed the use of their lands, their benches and their sheets as backdrops. They have organized the sessions and made sure that the children listened carefully to our instructions.

The other extreme was marked by one afternoon on my second to last day in this village. Without reason the shutter on my lens seemed to snap, or my mind just seemed to notice the malfunction in the middle of their session. It was my second to last day and I thought that perhaps this malfunction had existed since the first day of this trip. My heart dropped to my feet and I was barely able to continue after changing lenses.

We finished the session, and then arranged to return the following morning even though my plane departed from New Delhi on that same day in the middle of the afternoonI. Even though we were five hours away, we arranged to come back to this village and made new portraits of everyone just in case. They were touched by the gesture as I was touched by their willingness to do so twice in less than 18 hours. I barely slept the night before, heard almost every single sound until sunrise arrived.

As it turned out the lens shutter did malfunction at the very moment that last afternoon, but only at the moment that my ears noticed. So all in all the images turned out nicely, and the pit in my stomach was finally removed several weeks later as the film was being developed.

This village will always serve as a reminder of how fleeting our experiences can be, and how much there is to be thankful for in my life. I am fortunate enough to have met these two families and to announce that their school will reopen next year, along with four other schools, as our collaboration with Humana People to People continues.

For more information regarding the foundation and our collaboration, along with images, one may viist the following websites:

Halim Ina Photography
Humana People to People India

Teacher & Family, Humana People to People, Banganga, Rajasthan, India, November 20, 2009

In the previous blog entry an image was made of a dear woman making dinner for us. The family above represents her sister and her nieces and nephew. The grandmother stands in the background, and this image  was made at the end of one of our photographic sessions.

Once again a boy's leg enters the picture, the same boy from the last image but with pants. His sandal is to the right of the frame. These are the faces that greet me upon entering and leaving Banganga, and these are the students for whom the Humana People to People India schools are meant.

All of them have attended the school and their mother has been the teacher since my first days with Humana. Each sister has her own personality, what they share in common is their extreme shyness. They have rarely spoken to me with words, only with expressions. The least shy of the three happens to be the youngest, the one in front. She is the one that held my hand on my last visit and walked me to her home to the surprise of her father.

Her mother is also the school teacher. Classes are always on time and all of the students wear a uniform. It is usually a pink/white checkered one, just like the one worn by the young student from Banganga in a most recent blog post. Classes are held in an adjacent open space, with a finished roof and a portable chalkboard. The students live nearby and walk to the school, coming from all directions and usually walking down the unpaved path, or at times through the trees in the distance. If we happen to be photographing on a specific day, that walk turns into a run.

Their hair is always perfect, and glistens in the sunlight. They never complain about waiting their turn and work in the hard light of the sun without giving up. I admire each one of them and respect their sincerest efforts. They exemplify the best in all of us and will be an infinite number of reasons for my return over a lifetime.

For more of my work, please visit the newly designed website below, courtesy of Patrick Luu.

Halim Ina Photography