Games, Humana People to People India, Rajasthan, India, 2010

While it may be impossible for me to travel to India this year, it's more than possible to look back at the great memories made during the past 15 years. This trio of photographs brings fond memories of my time with Humana People to People India, and the community retreats that they would hold in the villages. In this game the participants would be blindfolded while the crowd would cheer them on as they searched for that clay pot.

While the community work being done by HPPI was very technical and complicated, they knew that they needed to engage the communities on the ground. This was a great way to involve everyone and to help even the playing field between genders, between age groups and so on. It's been a blessing to have been there and continues to be a blessing to know these great people. 

Etsy 

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Students + I, Outside of Alwar, Rajasthan, India, 2018

As the bags are unpacked this evening from the trip back home, memories of the past two months are already coming to mind. This triple selfie was made at the end of an hour of photography at a village just a few kilometers away. The session was spontaneous, and all let their hair down for the photography... a rare event in rural India for me. One was a former student, and one is presently a student at the model Advaita Garden school just outside of Alwar, Rajasthan. Nirvanavan Foundation is doing an incredible job in this area, and has been doing so for almost two decades now. It is time to gather further support and funding for the schools, and much more!

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Note: This image was made with a Sony RX100M3.

Three Students + School, Nirvanavan Foundation, Rajasthan, India, 2017

So the work has begun, and we have visited two schools thus far in Rajasthan. These are the very schools which a dozen of you have come forward to support, and these are three of the students. Two have been enrolled in the school for years, following in their sisters' footprints... and one is new. The smiles on their faces say it all!

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Thank you Nirvana and the magical twelve!

Young Student + Chalkboard, Panipat, Haryana, India, 2016

As we get ready to celebrate the holidays over the next seven days, I would like to make time to salute the three dozen people supporting our three schools in Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, India. Through their generosity two schools in Rajasthan and a new school in Uttar Pradesh will be active as the new year arrives.

This young girl is from a fourth school, one we hope to also support early next year. She attends a school presently supported by our host from Uttar Pradesh. There is an equal number of boys and girls, and the superintendent has invited us to join in his efforts to help improve the quality of education being provided.

The school has a beautiful courtyard, along with an elegant mosque. It provides an education to an impoverished population, at times off of the government radar regarding a proper education. We were allowed to photograph every single one of the students, including the older girls. This level of cooperation in such a conservative community speaks volumes about our hosts, and about the community itself. They embraced us without question, Muslims and Hindus and a Christian working side by side for the sake of the children.

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Note: This image was made with a Sony RX100M3.

Dancers + Friends, El Mirage Dry Lake Bed, California, 2016

A month or so ago it was my honor to photograph these two incredible dancers and friends at this timeless space. At first it was Cami who had responded to my casting call for dancers near Los Angeles, then Taylor graced us with her presence.

We met in the city and drove out to El Mirage for the afternoon. We were fortunate on that day, for earlier in the week the wind was out of control in the valley. When we arrived it was warm and just slightly windy. When the wind did pick up a little, they never complained and incorporated it into their movements. We exposed a few rolls per outfit, and moved the car from one location to the next in order to change the background as well.

Sometimes working with two people can present a challenge, but these two incredible spirits represented the highest of their art form in my humble opinion. They only needed a minute to discuss ideas, and presented incredible feelings frame after frame with very little time in between. This impressed me deeply then, and even more so now after seeing the results.

Watching them work together, and move from one expression to another was like sitting down for a performance. There were times when it was necessary to remind myself that my job was to document the performance, while still enjoying it. To have been granted the opportunity was both an honor and a privilege; and my hope is that the images are a testament to their physical talents and spiritual kindness.

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Note: This image was made with a Sony RX100M3.

Young Student + Interfaith Effot, Uttar Pradesh, India, 2016

This is one of the students which would benefit from the new interfaith collaboration being proposed by Nirvanavan Foundation and the host villages in Uttar Pradesh, India. We hope that this smile, this spirit helps people understand the meaning of such work, and that we may be able to find the funding necessary to make this a reality for her and so many more like her.

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Note: This image was scanned through the negative sleeves for preview only, made with a Hasselblad 555 ELD/180 mm combination. 

Cousins + Me, Virat Nagar, Rajasthan, India, 2016

This week we achieved something on a grassroots level that I thought was impossible, after having tried for so long. A simple post about supporting a single school turned into annual support for that school. With this achievement, we now have two schools near this town fully supported. This gives me further inspiration to move forward with our third school, this one a bit further and quite a bit larger. I am thankful to all of the contributors, and share this image of me and two cousins for your review.

The young girl to my right is our sewing instructor, while the young girl to my left is the daughter of our school's teacher. They wanted to dress up and make some photographs at the end of our session on this afternoon, and looked so beautiful. They have truly grown up since our first days together over ten years ago, and have made me incredibly proud.

Congratulations to the incredible dozen for making these two schools happen!

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Note: This image was made with a Sony RX100M3 by my friend Amanpreet Singh.

Model + Home in Countryside, Guanabacoa, Cuba, 2016

Ever since we collaborated last summer we remained in contact, and planned on working together this summer as well. So when we arrived in July we called immediately, and she was ready to create. This was even more visible when we were granted the clothing line designed by the magnificent Yudel R. Contreras Garcia. Rachel Hortensia Lopez Thompson took to the clothes like she owned them. She is a chameleon and produces incredible expressions regardless of location, or strength of sunlight. When the sun was too strong, she put her sunglasses on and continued with the session. We were fortunate to have found this location thanks to Alejandro Godinez Ramos. This happened to be his son's neighborhood, and since we began using it last summer he has become quite the celebrity in town, waving to the residents as we drive by with the models in the car. His family jokes with him about the work with me, jabbing him in the ribs with jokes regarding the hardships he faces. Little do they know how difficult the work is truly, as he wakes up well before 4:30 a.m. to pick the young models up from their homes in the city, then passing by my place to pick me up as well. I both admire and respect this man, and hope we continue this work alongside Rachel and Yudel next summer!
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Note: This image was made with a Sony RX100III.

Young Student, Nirvanavan Foundation, Rajasthan, India, 2016

For the wonderful circle associated with this young girl's school in Rajasthan, I share her freshly scanned negatives from last week. Thanks to all of you she has a school to attend, and she and her friends in the village will continue to attend! She lives near a small town called Virat Nagar in the beautiful state of Rajasthan, and has been a part of my work since her birth… since I have photographed her sisters for the past 10 years!
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Note: These images were made with a Hasselblad analog system onto Ilford Delta 100 film.

Ballerina + Field, Santa Maria del Mar, Cuba, 2016

Working with this young dancer and her friends here in Cuba continues to inspire me, 8 years after the first images of ballerinas were made. Hope to share much more soon!

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Note: This image was made with a Sony RX100III mounted next to and triggered at the same time as a Hasselblad analog system.

Young Model + Beach, Santa Maria del Mar, Cuba, 2015

Last summer we had the honor of working with some of the best models in Cuba, and were humbled with their willingness to do more than expected. All were willing to get into the water with their outfits, to get down into the sand and get completely wet.

That was the case with this young model. She struggled at first with the sunlight, but used that to her advantage by taking on more abstract positions, more unusual stances. Here she closed her eyes and thought peaceful thoughts as the shutter was released.

While working with professionals can be different than working with our ballet students, the difference in Cuba is minimal for all take the photography so seriously. I for one look forward to returning in two weeks and bringing these photographs to the people.

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Note: This image was made with a Fuji GA645 camera onto Kodak TMX film.

Interfaith Collaboration, Rajasthan + Uttar Pradesh, India, 2016

Two months ago Nirvana Bodhisattva and I visited this village and her school. We spoke with our host and learned that he would like to introduce a full school curriculum to the village. With his own funds he built the school and has funded a limited curriculum in order to gain the confidence of the village. What was most intriguing to me, and perhaps to Nirvana, was our host's willingness to accept an interfaith approach to this project.

So over the next four weeks I am going to ask this community for ideas. Does anyone feel that they would like to take part in this project? Does anyone belong to a community, such as a mosque or a temple, which would like to partner up with its counterpart in Uttar Pradesh?

The school will have around 240 students, with both genders being equally represented. Nirvana Bodhisattva and his team at Nirvanavan Foundation will be in charge of the project, and the collaboration will span the states of Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.

The budget is quite reasonable for the scale, and I truly believe we can take this on.

All ideas are appreciated of course!

halim.ina@gmail.com

Note: This image was made with a Sony RX100III with available light only.

Ballerina + Tree, West of Havana, Cuba, 2015

The next few weeks will be spent scanning the negatives in order to print the photographs for the families in Cuba. These frames are from a scan earlier this afternoon, and are just three of 200 frames scanned today.

Last year it seemed to rain almost every single afternoon, and always on top of Havana. So one day we decided to drive west where it seemed clearer, albeit from our perspective as novice meteorologists.

So we drove west and the clouds began to disappear right about when the first big town appeared. We made a note of our discovery and were about to turn around when we saw a young girl in a ballet outfit. This happened just after I had asked Alejandro if there was a ballet school in the town. He looked at me in a funny way, then immediately had to take it back as this dancer crossed our view.

The idea of photographing ballerinas in the countryside has already been done, but ballerinas from the countryside was something new to us. We stopped to talk, arranged a meeting later in the week and had our first session soon after.

This series is from our first session together, and this young girl performed wonderfully for the lens. Another dancer came along as well and her performance was as magnificent. All in all it was an incredible session, one born through happenstance!

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Note: This series was made with a Hasselblad 555 ELD/100 mm combination.

The Evolution of a Smile, Near Alwar, Rajasthan, India, 2016

This young girl has been on my mind since last year, and fortunately we were able to photograph her once again this year. This is a scan of a few frames exposed just a month or so ago.

A friend of mine always asks me, 'why do you photograph the same person for so many frames?' While showing him this series might convince him, my gut instinct is that it will do very little to change his mind.

I however feel strongly that a person should be given the chance to express as many times as possible, on as many frames available. We searched and searched for her two months ago, and found her to still be living in her grandparents' home rather than with her parents, a place where she seemed to be quite happy.

All of the neighbors have noticed our recognition of this young girl's spirit, and her unmatched beauty. They could just as easily make it hard for us to collaborate, but lend their helping hand to make her feel as comfortable as possible under the circumstances.

This is what makes this series possible, the transition from a somewhat skeptical expression to pure joy!

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Note: This series was exposed using a Hasaselblad 555 ELD/180 mm combination and scanned for proofing just yesterday.

Young Student + Humana India, Madhya Pradesh, India, 2016

Can we imagine how difficult this young girl's life truly is? 

The region in which she lives is the most beautiful from my travels in India… but also one of the most extreme in which to live. Hundreds of meters separate the homes, and the only way to make a living is from the land itself.

Is it possible for us to understand her life even for only one day?

Some of the children in her community will walk over a mile just to make it to class, some well over two miles. Yet they do so day in and day out. The darker portion of the wall behind her also happens to be the chalkboard of her classroom.

How can we measure the courage it took for her to stand in front of strangers for her portrait?

While the children are almost without exception happy to be involved in something so different for them, it still takes a heck of a lot to stand in front of the entire class and be photographed so honestly. She and her friends were on my mind when I presented in front of my high school in Cleveland and my colleagues in Los Angeles two weeks ago. If she could do so with such calm and strength, I had little excuse to do otherwise.

This young student inspires me immensely, and helps this work to go forward. The hope is that the number of schools will triple over the next three years, and that more like her will have the chance to attend classes for the first time in their young lives.

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Note: This image was made with a Sony RX100M3.

Younger Sister + Shawl, Gurgaon, Haryana, India, 2016

From this very neighborhood comes yet another incredible face and beautiful spirit. This young girl is the sister to our star from last year. We photographed her sister last year in a hoodie, something quite rare from my experiences in India. We returned this year to find her sister, did so and walked down the alley to an open space to photograph the children.

Amazing face after amazing face walked over to see what was happening, including this young girl. One look at her, and I just knew that she was our star's younger sister. I communicated this to the team, and they then translated my thoughts to the girls. They of course smiled, and nodded in agreement.

She was exquisite, just like her sister from last year. Now keeping everyone around us calm took on more significance, since we were down to the girls with our photography. The boys had already been photographed, and chaos was taking its toll on me. Thanks however to the team, and to two young men from the neighborhood, we were able to maintain some calm until her portrait was finished.

We ended the visit by speaking to her and her sister, standing nearby with some friends. Instead of just packing our gear and walking away, we made the time to speak with them directly. Through my translator my thoughts were communicated. They heard that we returned just for them, that their faces were etched in my mind, and that we hoped they were attending the school funded by Humana Indiain a nearby temple.

They had never been spoken with directly by someone outside of their community, even less so by someone from another country. Their expressions made me truly appreciate the bond formed since last year, and the incredible trust they had placed in me. It is a truly humbling experience to be associated with these girls, to know that they give selflessly. It's time to step up this project, and to fund dozens rather than a dozen schools.

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Note: This portrait was made with a Sony RX100M3.

Students + Friends, Humana India, Madhya Pradesh, India, 2016

This year was my first visit to this beautiful region of India, and a true blessing. Many described the area as being tribal, but that gave me little insight as to the people themselves. Upon arriving it was evident to me that the communities were extremely serene, kind and gentle. 

The smiles came to the girls' faces much more easily, and the boys were exceptionally courteous. Photographing the children was quite easy, and gave me a chance to rest during the second half of my first month. Even though the drive was exhausting, the serenity of the people and the stunning landscape energized me.

These girls attend a government school in collaboration with Humana India. The foundation worked for one year in this area, and designed a system which would take out-of-school children and bring them into the formal, government system. My hope is that the children are in fact now enrolled and will continue onto secondary schools.

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Note: These images were made with a Sony RX100M3.

Young Student + Madrasa, Shamli District, India, 2016

As a follow-up to the previous post her portrait is presented. This young girl attends classes in the madrasa we visited on our first afternoon in this region of India.Thanks to wonderful happenstance we were able to make something of our afternoon and do something fun with the students present during our visit.

Rather than remain shy and thank our hosts for the visit, it seemed natural to meet the curiosity of the children with our own, and to do something completely different.

When this young girl came to school that day, was she thinking that a foreigner was going to visit her school and make her portrait? What did she think when we arrived and walked into her classroom? Did she ever think the stranger would have the courage to abandon social protocol and ask outright to photograph her and her friends?

These thoughts drove me to ask, and her expression says it all for me. They were both excited and nervous, shy yet confident. We found a light wall within the compound and photographed each girl on her own.

My interpretation was that they were both in disbelief and overjoyed at the opportunity to express themselves, both to the camera and to the outside world. It was the highest honor for me to do so, and to have been entrusted with their portraits. The work after all is for them, and their sisters in other parts of the world. They are the highest forms of beauty and love for me, and my only hope is that my portraits will somehow convey this to the viewers.

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Note: This image was made with a Sony RX100M3.

Young Student + Shawl, Nirvanavan Foundation, Rajasthan, India, 2015

This young student came out of nowhere photographically. What I mean is that we had been photographing this school and village for a few years, yet my memory seems to fail me regarding her earlier images. Somehow only this year and last year come to mind, and as such her presence earlier this year took me by pleasant surprise. 

This was her year, as she showed me what it means to be ready to express oneself. It's as if she took the lens as her bottle, into which she could place her messages. She looked through the lens, through me and beyond… as she spoke her mind.

She lives across the path from the school, and seems to appear immediately after our arrival. There are few as excited as her to be photographed, or just to be with us. She is divine, and gives me more than enough impetus to continue with this work, to find support for her school year after year.

Earlier this year we were allowed into her home to make her portrait. If only we could have read her mind as this was happening, we would have been even more enlightened by her. She was quieter, yet more intense. Her eyes focused even more so as we made her portrait in front of her uncle especially… as he was the only man from the family in the house at that time.

In eight weeks I will see her again, and hope that she will once again allow us to make her portrait.

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Note: This image was made with a Sony RX100M2. 

Girl with the Clear Eyes, La Habana, Cuba, 2005

The first time her color portrait was shared happened to be the wonderful pop-up at the Cleveland Print Room this past weekend. It so happened that her photograph was made in monochrome and in color, both on film at the time. Every time her photograph is displayed in monochrome someone walks up to me and asks about the color of her eyes.
So here she is, and I am pleased that her photograph was purchased by a dear friend and colleague. As in the previous years, the funds will be placed in her gentle hands when we meet in July. What she has always done with the proceeds is improve the conditions under which her family lives, rather than concentrate on herself.  
She lives with her mother, stepfather, grandfather, sister and her own two children in a one room home. They have split the room vertically and have added a bedroom above where everyone sleeps on mats laid out on the floor. On the first floor is a small bed for the grandfather, a tiny kitchen area and a small television.
Years ago I presented the idea of putting her image up for sale, since so many seemed interested. She loved the idea, as did her mother. In our conversation we talked about the making of her portrait, and that any proceeds from its success had been earned by her courage in front of the lens.
The first time I handed the funds over to her was quite an experience. She was incredibly humble, and was almost unable to accept the gesture. After a few minutes she did so, and put the proceeds away in a safe place.
A few days later we returned for another portrait session. We were welcomed as always with grace. However before beginning our photography, the future school teacher wanted to show something to me. She took my hand, and with the permission of her mother, guided me upstairs to the bedroom. Her stepfather was also upstairs getting ready for work as a security guard.
She pointed to a new bed, one large enough for the women in the family. This was the first time she had a bed in which to sleep night after night. To put words down describing the feeling inside is impossible. Suffice it to say that a great emotion came over me and we just stood there smiling, the stepfather included.
She then took my hand once again and walked downstairs with me. She pointed to the new floor-standing fans in the room. This was also the first time that she had such ventilation in her home, enough to keep her and her family cooler during the day. A few people were also sitting inside and looked pleased at my reaction.
While my partner in work had seen much reaction to our work with the families before that day, this experience also left him with the impression that the photography had taken on a new meaning. We left the family on this day like never before, and promised to return the next week.
Should you like to make a difference with the purchase of her print also, please do get a hold of me and let's make yet another difference in her life!
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Note: This image was made with a Hasselblad V System.