In a photographer’s journey from black and white to the digital world, the most enduring interest has always been human life on the edges of society. For those on the margins, life is inseparable from the wheel, which not just adds to their mobility but also sustains their figurative and metaphorical journeys. Here is an attempt to capture the idea of the “wheel” in its various shapes, sizes, uses and contrasts. Technology has taken the idea of the wheel to greater heights, even taken it literally to the skies and beyond.
However, the wheel of fortune has not turned for large sections of society in the country. Their wheel is where their cradles hang. It is their feet and strollers, livelihood and shelter, and source of entertainment. It is under the shade of the wheel that they grapple with the shadows of the past.
The wheel has taken the photographer in different directions over the years. Forgotten in the commonplace, but omnipotent here on the margins. Didn’t the wheel in the national flag envisage an equal society? But for the less fortunate, did the wheel turn in the direction of their destination? Will it turn?
Text and images by Bhagya Prakash K.
In a continuum: The wheel comes full circle, with rickety animal-drawn carts sharing road space with modern machines, all riding on this age-old invention.
City of no joy: Human-draw carts, once a fixture in many Indian cities, are passing into oblivion.
Role change: Free mules, burdened man.
Life is a circus: Wheels sometimes defy gravity.
Jugaad on wheels: What a pair of bicycles can do.
Fire escape: The only difference between life and death are the wheels.
Reinventing the wheel: Riding on two boats.
Anchored: Resting wheels, sleeping baby.