Young Woman + Kanjar Community, Rajasthan, India

Let’s imagine for one minute sitting on a bench on the side of the road, looking into a mirror making sure the presentation is just right. Then imagine one of the countless truck drivers passing by notices and stops. The man then walks over to inquire about certain services. Then let’s imagine that our uncle comes over to agree on the price before we are expected to perform those services in our own home.

This is the reality for this young women, her aunts, her nieces and neighbors. Her community trades in sex, and the women are the products which the men of the community trade. 

Our minute of our imagination is her reality for 1,440 minutes each day.

Etsy 

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Teacher + Students, Nirvanavan Foundation, Rajasthan, India

The effect which Nirvana Bodhisattva and his team produce can be seen in this portrait of a teacher in front of her smiling students. Here she sits in her classroom, surrounded by the admiration of her students. We can see the love and joy on the students faces, as they enjoy the credit their teacher deserves.

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Note: Image was made with a Sony RX100M3.

Neighbor's Son, Village near Alwar, Rajasthan, 2016

This beautiful boy lives next to my dear friend in a small village just outside of Alwar, Rajasthan. He and his sisters' features immediately caught my attention when visiting my friend one afternoon, and we photographed them the very next day. There was something about these children, always smiling and smiling beautifully!

Their smiles exuded pure love and understanding. They watched as my interest increased as each one of them was photographed. They were naturals in front of the lens, and my friend Mukesh knew that they affected me deeply.

After we were finished with the portraits for the morning, we continued with the digital camera in the neighbor's courtyard. The children loved being photographed, and I loved photographing them. Every time we returned to their village, I remembered their names and this made them smile even more.

I cannot wait to see them in February, and to see this very smile on their angelic faces!

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Note: This image was made with a Sony RX100M3.

Three Women, Alwar, Rajasthan, India, November 18, 2008

So who are the women who have endured the world of human trafficking? Where are the faces behind the numbers and charts?

These three women live within the Kanjar Community, and have witnessed with their own eyes the world of the sex trade. This has been the reality within which they have had to live, and into which their labor has been forced.

So who are the women who have endured the world of human trafficking? Where are the faces behind the numbers and charts?

These three women live within the Kanjar Community, and have witnessed with their own eyes the world of the sex trade. This has been the reality within which they have had to live, and into which their labor has been forced.

They stood for their portraits 8 years ago so that perhaps their daughters would have a better chance, so that perhaps the world would wake up. Nirvana Bodhisattva and his team at Nirvanavan Foundation are doing their absolute best to honor these women, and their daughters.

Jesse Bach and Elana are also doing their best here in Northeast Ohio, where countless women also share this most unfortunate of stories. Let's support them in their quest for human rights and justice.

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Note: These portraits were made with a Hasselblad V system.

Best of Friends, Kanjar Community, Nirvanavan Foundation, Alwar, Rajasthan, India, 2016

All it took was one suggestion and the girls took to it instantly. We thought it a good idea to ask the girls to do something different for their portraits, to show their love for each other during the photography. Two girls did so immediately and the rest was as they say history.

Two girls after two girls displayed sisterly love in their own way, from the palm of the hands against the cheeks to elbows on shoulders. It was wonderful to see such abandon, to see the young women in my India work act with such freedom. All approaches are appreciated of course, but something about this afternoon touched me deeply.

Here were girls living in a community rooted deep in the sex trade, attending classes in the school offered courageously by the team at Nirvanavan Foundation, showing the world that hope does exist, that another future will be theirs from this point forward. The girls fully understand the reality around them, yet displayed an unrivaled joy this afternoon proving to me that change is around the corner.

Nirvana and his team are doing incredible work in these villages, as they have been given unprecedented access to the children. The teachers come from nearby villages, and do so at the risk of alienating themselves from their own families.

The courage cannot be overstated, and is on all sides of this social equation. Such expressions as the ones displayed here cannot be denied, and cannot be suppressed. They are the future of these communities, and hopefully the beginning of the demise regarding the type of work demanded of the young women.

My hope is that the young boys also in class will see their sisters in a different way, and lead the revolution. This is a lesson I learned a long time ago from Nirvana, that the boys are as important and even more so should change be the desire.

So on this day we also photographed the boys in the same way, and asked them to also show their own styles. They also jumped at the chance and the mood was palpable. Let's hope that these two young women walk a different path, and that in ten years their children are being photographed in the same way, yet in a different environment... free and full of potential.

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Note: This image was made with a Sony RX100M3 with natural light only.

Young Boy + Kanjar Community, Nirvanavan Foundation, India, 2016

I present this portrait as a follow-up to the previous post, as he is a young boy from the same community as the two young woman. He will one day decide the fate of his sister, and perhaps his community.

Here he stands in front of a home locked for the season, with the family on a surreal vacation. They have gone to the big cities to present their daughters to the sex trade. They have left behind the younger children under the care of Nirvanavan Foundation, as Nirvana and his team have arranged a hostel to take care of the children daily. They provide classes as well as two meals a day for the time being.

Nirvana and his team are seeking to build a permanent structure for these children and it is my aim to help on my end to make this happen. Anyone affected by this post, and the earlier one, may also help make this happen through this collaboration... just send me a note and we'll brainstorm.

What will this boy and his brothers decide? Will they continue to place their sisters into the sex trade? Will they continue to earn their living from the services their sisters provide? Will they perhaps go another way? Will the classes held by Nirvana and his foundation have their intended effect?

My hope is that he and his brothers see another way. The obstacles are great, as seen by their lavish homes in the midst of rural India. Their earthly profits are substantial, without the men working a single day in the fields as their neighbors do on a daily basis. The temptations are almost insurmountable... yet I believe that this boy has the potential to overcome.

This is my hope, and what keeps me coming to Nirvanavan Foundation over and over again.

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Note: This image was made with a Sony RX100M3 with the courageous help of Mukesh Poswal.

Friends + Embrace, Nirvanavan Foundation, Gajuki Village, Rajasthan, India, 2016

This past week we visited an old village from my collaboration with Nirvana and his team at Nirvanavan Foundation. This community is outside of the mainstream system, and the foundation has decided decades ago to embrace it. The community is known to most in the area due to their immersion in the sex trade, as they send their girls to the bigger cities to work in the hotels and bars.

The Kanjar Community is dispersed all over Rajasthan, and located many times near the highways, close to the routes of the truckers as well. Some of their girls are sent as far away as UAE, disguised as housemaids and caretakers of livestock.

The team has taken it upon itself to set up schools in a dozen of these villages, attempting to break this vicious cycle. The children see another way of life through the teachers and, while the topic of the sex trade is never brought up, the idea is that education will bring about change. The boys and girls are included in the schools, for the boys will grow up to be the ones to make the decisions for the girls

In this image perhaps we see two girls living in a village, showing sisterly affection to each other and nothing else. In fact it is exactly that, and nothing more. The fact that they come from this community or another means very little, and my mention of such is to only further the education of those outside of this system in order to help abolish it.

I hope to return to this school to make more images, for the girls were truly affectionate and kind. They welcomed us with open arms, as did the community in spite of the fact that letting us in also lets in change. My hope is that this change comes soon enough for this generation, rather than later.

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Note: This image was made with a Sony RX100M2.

Child + Sex Trade, Nirvanavan Foundation, Alwar, Rajasthan, November 26, 2013

Most seeing portraits of the young girls in in my work from India think that they are boys, due to their short hair. This just so happens to be one of my favorite features, and makes for incredibly powerful portraits.

This specific one was made with Nirvana and his wonderful team at Nirvanavan Foundation. This was the fifth roll made on November 26 of 2013, while the team guided me through the villages in which they work. The foundation has set up schools for the children of the Nat and Kanjar Communities, in which traditional prostitution unfortunately thrives.

These very girls see on a daily basis the tragedy of the sex trade, watch their older sisters being sold by the men in their own families. Without the foundation this would be the only possibility for them as well. Nirvana and his team are doing the best that they can to present an alternative, and do so every single day without exception.

I admire and respect the path that they have chosen to walk, and hope to be there in the very near future alongside these incredible people.

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

Young Girl + Kanjar Community, Rajasthan, India, 2013

She is surrounded on a daily basis by the tentacles of the sex trade. She watches as men from the nearby villages walk through her village and with her sisters, aunts and cousins. She endures this reality every single day of her life, knows that the men in her village enable this trade, that her brothers, cousins and uncles do the bidding for their forced labor.

In the middle of all of this her portrait was made last year with Nirvana and his team at Nirvanavan Foundation. We guided the girls to the rooftop of the classroom and spent perhaps an hour making their portraits. This one struck my eyes immediately, and she knew it. Whatever she was wearing was secondary to me, it was her face that captured and never let go of my admiration. So I attached the close up tube to the camera and set my sights on her countenance.

Here was a girl whose eyes had seen the worst of humanity, yet shared nothing but its best with us on that rooftop. Her power overwhelmed me, and to have this portrait as a reminder of her presence means the world to me. I do hope that she is there next year and that the foundation will have the time to allow me one more visit to her village.

I also hope that the school has made further strides in this community, and that she has another path upon which to walk in the near future.

www.halimina.org

Note: This image was made with a Hasselblad 555 ELD/180 mm lens with a close-up attachment, onto Fuji Neopan Acros 100 ISO film.