As if the garbage we see around us is not sufficient, a Brazilian photographer travelled the length and breadth of India and captured the heaps to tell us.
As if the garbage we see around us is not sufficient, a Brazilian photographer travelled the length and breadth of India and captured the heaps to tell us, through her telling photographs (The Load), how we treat our garbage and the way we look down upon those who collect it.
For Conceicao Praun, India seems to be one vast garbage dump, that’s fodder for her analog camera which helped her capture the hundreds of black and white prints that are on display in large and medium format at Gallery Beyond, till August 22.
Having learnt photography from master photographer George Fevre in Paris, she has travelled across India photographing our waste.
“During my journey, I looked at different people, who have created an infrastructure to deal with. I have found the common man living and working in close proximity to high emission levels. These people are usually seen in areas around water bodies, airports, industries, dumping grounds, etc. exposing themselves to pollutants in water, air and land,” says a concerned Praun.
The sweepers, sanitary workers, ragpickers are important protagonists in her ‘frame’ of society.
They are the ones who have to face this reality; unfortunately they only do it for their livelihood which makes them no different from the others.
Photography is a medium of expression for Praun, not a profession and this exhibition is result of a kind of introspection.
“I know for certain that I have generated some unaccountable waste during life’s journey which are cleaned swiftly at the places of my stay and I could never know where it’s gone?” she asks. So, she went in search of answers that shocked her out of her cocoon even if it meant a health risk, shooting labourers at different levels such as sweepers, sanitary workers, rag pickers, engineers, health inspectors, environmentalists and scientists. And it was from here that her personal ‘expedition’ began.
“I would like to present the hidden dimensions of this issue through this black and white photographic documentation which will give you the gist of my journey from the North to the South and even from the East to the West in India where I had the chance to visit places like dumping grounds, electronic management, biomedical plant, sewage plant, hazardous plants, etc. At the same time I interacted with people who are responsible for cleaning up the mess,” says the photographer.
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