Each seemingly ordinary photograph in ‘Our Streets, Our Stories’, an exhibition by eight photographers from Vyasarpadi, even that of a cramped and dimly-lit room, a woman auto driver, a carrom player, the feet of a construction worker, tells a poignant and powerful tale of the lives of North Chennai residents.
The young photographers — Rasiya Banu, 21, P. Thirisha, 20, D. Vigneshwari, 15, S. Nandhini, 18, S. Vinodhini, 19, E. Imman, 17, and N. Sakthivel, 28 — mentored over the past year by M. Palani Kumar, a photographer with the People’s Archive of Rural India, have reclaimed their stories, and that of North Chennai, which has mostly been portrayed in the media in a voyeuristic and unfavourable manner.
A notebook of R. Priya, a teen footballer from Vyasarpadi who died due to alleged medical negligence following a leg surgery, and the mortal remains of Priya, documented by Rasiya Banu | Photo Credit: Geetha Srimathi
“In the film Sarpatta Parambarai they showed boxing. Kuthu Sandai is ours, it started from here. But now you only associate us for rowdyism,” said Ms. Nandhini, a journalism student, who has documented the locality’s children learning boxing.
An unmissable set of photographs, all of which were displayed in the lanes of the housing board buildings, is that of Ms. Rasiya’s documentation of the demise of Priya, a 12-year-old football player who died of multiple organ failure due to medical negligence when she was operated on for a leg injury. “The photos should be a reminder that something like this should never happen again,” said Ms. Rasiya.
In learning to chronicle their surroundings, the photographers said they realised that what was ‘normal’ for them — a small house with seven people residing in it, lack of resources, and day-to-day discrimination — was something that should be voiced out to the larger society.
S. Vinodhini captures the everyday lives of women sanitation workers in north Chennai | Photo Credit: Geetha Srimathi
According to P. Sainath, founding editor of People’s Archive of Rural India, out of the many schools of photography in the world, only two really matter. One is photography of power. “What I see here today in Vyasarpadi, in these lanes, constitutes another school of photography - the photography of protest, and of people,” he said in a panel discussion with the photographers on Saturday.
What makes the photographs stellar is not just the intent, he said, but also content, which shows the everyday lives of everyday people, the context, creation, and collaboration of the community.“ “When one percent of the population are becoming billionaires the photos show how a major chunk of the urban population live and suffer,” he remarked.
The exhibition was held by Vyasai Thozhargal and Chennai Climate Action Group from January 19 to 21 at Vyasarpadi.
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