They trudged through flooded streets; clambered up a dumpyard; plodded through wetlands and marched repeatedly through their North Chennai neighbourhood, armed with cameras and a sense of purpose.
For six months last year, K Hairu Nisha (17), K Noor Nisha (15), P T Karthickeyan (17), G Logeshwaran (21), A Mohamad Adhil (14), and S Shafeeq Ahamed (17) documented their world. The teenagers from Thiruvottiyur were participating in a workshop with independent photographer M Palanikumar in 2021. They took over 22,000 photos, 50 of which are to be exhibited at a show titled North Chennai REFRAMED at The Folly, Amethyst.
The children marched through their North Chennai neighbourhood, armed with cameras and a sense of purpose
The event is organised by Zenith Learning Centre, a tuition centre in Thiruvottiyur the children go to; Chennai Climate Action Group, and Coastal Resource Centre, a support group for the coastal community for which environmental activist Nityanand Jayaraman is an advisor. The project, according to Nityanand, was “triggered by conversations with the children about poisoned playgrounds and their daily encounters with pollution.” He adds: “It is a means to get children to narrate their own stories about the anxieties and aspirations of growing up in a region that hosts South India’s largest concentration of climate-changing, carbon-spewing industries.”
Palanikumar, who introduced a professional camera to the participants, says he took back valuable lessons from the experience. “Their photos are political, and speak of an insider’s perspective,” says the 30-year-old from Madurai, who has been documenting people and livelihoods of North Chennai over the past two years. “What they see and choose to capture are completely different from an outsider’s point of view.”
The project was triggered by conversations with the children about poisoned playgrounds and their daily encounters with pollution.
On first glimpse, the photos seem to be an ode to the parts of Chennai most of us hold close to our hearts: fisherwomen in deep concentration cleaning fish; slivers of silver drying in the sun; a net being cast against the setting sun… but look deeper and you can see how most of their activities unravel amid the backdrop of industrial chimneys spewing smoke.
“We can smell the smoke at the playground on early Sunday mornings,” says Karthickeyan. “The chimneys are permanent fixtures in our lives… my father would talk about the fumes and how they were always there,” he adds. “Sometimes, they make it hard for us to breathe.” Experiences such as these dominate the frames. “The actual workshop in which we learned the basics of photography lasted just four hours,” says Logeshwaran, who is pursuing a Master’s degree in Clinical Research. “We learned the rest on our feet,” he adds. “Each of us were given a camera and encouraged to shoot on our own.”
It had a different effect on each participant. It made shy Noor Nisha start conversations with the people she photographed; gave Hairu Nisha the confidence to ask questions. Mohamad rediscovered his love for the natural world. As for Shafeeq, it offered lessons for life. He says, “So many people came forward to tell me their stories when they saw the camera.”
The exhibition is at The Folly, Amethyst, on February 4 and 5. It is open to all. For details, 9840876981.
