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In August of 2010, Bangalore witnessed the tragic death of over 40 inmates at the “Beggar’s Home” on Magadi Road. The home was overcrowded with an estimated 2500 inmates squeezed into infrastructure that was meant to accommodate about 500 people. Reports indicate that contaminated food served (ironically) on Independence Day, triggered the incident. Five months later and the Beggar’s Home has been sanitised. The number of inmates is somewhere in the vicinity of 300. The walls are freshly painted, the floors look clean but there still remains a vacant stare in the eyes of the inmates.

The incident in August turned the spotlight onto the issue of how the state is criminalising poverty. The Karnataka Prohibition Of Beggary Act, 1975[1] makes begging a crime. What’s written between the lines of the act is that poverty is a crime, particularly if you are in state of absolute poverty. The sentence for the crime of poverty is custodialisation (read as jail sentence). There is a process laid out in the law to make the arrest and pass sentence. In actual practice the process is followed superficially. Most inmates can’t defend themselves either because they can’t speak the language or do not understand what is happening to them. For example, there are innumerable cases of people having been picked for “looking poor”.

Inmates that the journalist met and spoke to come not only from parts of rural Karnataka but also from areas such as Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Odissa, Bihar, Rajasthan, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. There is a common thread of destitution and poverty in their journey lines. It’s not laziness that they are being punished for, it’s their poverty. Many of these inmates are mentally challenged and are being pushed over the brink by the process of custodialisation and being jailed like a criminal. What they need is a facilitative health care program and not a jail sentence.

There is an urgent need to stop incarcerating people only because they are poor and in a state of destitution. Proscriptive Laws that criminalise poverty need to be replaced by voluntary and rehabilitative policies that empower people out of poverty. We need to look deeper at complex root causes such as inequitable economic models and historical oppression through the caste system.

If we breed poverty, we have to deal with – not hide it in a jail cell. The aesthetic sensibilities of “shining India” can not come at the cost of somebody else’s right to freedom and dignity.

This photo essay is shot on the streets of Bangalore and during two visits to the Beggar’s Home in Decemeber 2010 and January 2011.

Please note: There are no portraits in this essay. The reasoning is that since these people are already being traumatized by society and have no particular identity, wrongly giving them an identity would harm their dignity and go against the principles of the project at this point in time.

[1]The Karnataka Prohibition Of Beggary Act, 1975

Biography

Ayush’s influence in photography took birth at a very young age. He grew up feeding his eyes on images from magazines like the National Geographic, Reader’s Digest, Time, Life and others, in which every picture was a story in itself. Not knowing the full impact that the pictures would have, was a boon in itself. It saved him from going through the intricacies of the “opinion” of judging one against the other. Everything was up for grabs.
On a holiday with his family in 1993, shooting on film on a Kodak K10, he took pictures of two things, among many, monkeys along Pushkar lake and the Humayun’s Tomb in Delhi. But it was not the pictures themselves that made the impact on him. It was the sheer thrill of the lingering excitement of seeing the final result on print and the feeling of reliving that moment in his mind and heart. The light, sounds, scents of something that’s history, and a very personal one. To him, photography is something that is private. His individuality is derived from it and his photographs in turn are consequential of this. He believes that any form of art has a very important role to play in fostering a sense of understanding between people in a very direct and unadulterated manner. And photography to him, is the most immediate.

• Freelancing since 2002
• August 2007 to June 2009 – Lecturer in Photography and Digital Imaging at National Institute of Creative Communication (NICC), Bangalore.

Key Projects and Assignments

• Coverage of the Tsunami in coastal Tamil Nadu [2004]
• “Pictures that speak” for the Dalit Foundation. Created a photo-library on Dalit movements, occupations and customs. [2005]
• “Born with Cerebral Palsy” – A project on the lives of children affected by cerebral palsy. [2008]
• ‘Bangalore Bar Culture’ – A small photographic narrative on Bangalore’s age old under belly, the local bars. [2009]
• “Namma Metro” A photo essay on the impact of the Metro Rail construction project in Bangalore (unpublished). [2010]
• Compiling a photo essay for PUCL, (People’s Union of Civil Liberties), about Bangalore ‘Beggar’s Home’ to raise awareness on the need to decriminalize poverty. [Phase I completed in 2010]
• Multiple editorial assignments for Femina magazine. [2002 – 2010]

Exhibitions

• “Unforgettable – The First Pictures” was held in 2003 in Bangalore.
• A participant in a group exhibition sponsored by Bangalore Rotary Club in 2004

Recognition

2007 ‘Honorable Mention’ at the first ever PX3 Prix De La Photographie competition, Paris, for the series on the Tsunami disaster of Dec 2004.

2008 ‘Honorable Mention’ at the PX3 Prix De La Photographie competition, Paris, for the series on the Pushkar Fair, Rajasthan.

2009 Was one of the top ten short-listed photographers of the Redux Scholarship for the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop, Manali, India.

Ayush Ranka

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“The Heart of Kabul”- street photography produced by two young Afgahni students, Ahmad Noman Stanekzai and Mohammed Naveed, participating in the Skateistan photography classes. Photography and journalism are part of a larger curriculum of activities from media production, theatre, art and skateboarding undertaken by the Skateistan NGO in Kabul, Afghanistan. The street photography was first published in the Skateistan magazine as part of ongoing activities to show the students’ work and documentation. It tells the story of two different student photographers view of their Kabul.

Skateistan strives to tell a positive story about Afghan youth told by its youth. Using global media platforms to send a message of hope, unity, peace and cross cultural understanding they connect and share their world with other children in classrooms around the world.

About Skateistan
At the Skateistan facility in Kabul over 300 regular students are receiving training from experienced skateboarders in a secure environment, and other educationally based activities. Currently, there are 18 classroom sessions being held per week, including a girls’ journalism class, a disabled class, and a Back-to-School program that helps kids enroll or re-enroll in public school. The NGO is also running advanced art classes for girls and boys once a week, which include activities such as painting skateboards, paper mache and portrait drawing. Classroom curriculuii include projects based on the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) from the context of life as a young person in Afghanistan and Environmental Health.

For more information visit www.skateistan.org

Click here for more information

Don’t Breathe | Inside the un reserved general compartments of Indian Railways

The apparition of these faces in the crowd,
Petals on a wet, black bough -In a Station of the Metro.

Unforgettable as an expression of a poetic experience of the highest order. The inexorable spell of these two lines by Ezra Pound weighs upon me whenever I catch sight of a typically Indian scene crammed with people. The lines recycle themselves into visuals as I scratch around for the right frame to showcase my perception of the Indian reality. Particularly when my camera chances upon the mess one finds so frequently in the unreserved general compartments of a railway carriage.

It is needless to remind ourselves that the lines have nothing characteristically Indian about them. Ostensibly, though, they depict the crowd in a station of the Metro. The pen-picture of the ‘ Petals on a wet, black bough’ speaks clearly of a different clime. ‘ The apparition of these faces in the crowd’ of the first line, on the other hand, keeps haunting you even as you try to escape.

Travel the length of the country. Board a train, thrust your way through the crowd to some messy corner of a general compartment and you start loosing your identity. One can safely predict a traumatic journey to the destination of absolute facelessness.

What the series seeks to capture is the chaos of a sick, thick throng gasping of air. It takes you straight into the heart of the muddle and the mess. It makes you listen to the muffled voice of individuality.

Ruthlessly robbed of your right to breathe, you are already there, sharing with the hapless masses the unbearable tightness of being—bearing with them the full burden of an inescapable Indian experience.

Ronny Sen

For several years Dunnico has documented this aspect of the ‘surveillance society’ including the organisations that operate it, companies who sell it and people who oppose it. The work was undertaken against a backdrop of paranoia, where the police identified photographers as would-be terrorists and the public saw them as might-be paedophiles. The result is a timely polemic against the ‘hoodies’ of the surveillance world that mixes strong graphic, urban images with humour and a surprising conclusion that Big Brother probably isn’t watching, but your supermarket definitely is. The work has been exhibited alongside a stage production of George Orwell’s 1984 and a large exhibition which will feature photographs and Orwell ephemera will be held in Salford in 2012.

Bio

David Dunnico is a documentary photographer from Manchester in the UK. He is widely published and works on carefully researched, long term self initiated projects. Consumerism and privitaisation of the public space are two of his interests, which he documents with a well-developed sense of the absurd. Exhibitions have included Memento Mori (2007, Salford Art Gallery), which looked at Victorian notions of loss and mourning “in a way that is infused with romance” – Manchester Evening News, and Sold Out (2008, Kiosk Gallery), which featured “Subversive photography examining the sinister undertones of advertising” – Metro News.

214-850-1995
Solo Exhibition: Artifacts from the Built Environment

Amarillo College
Southern Light Gallery
2011 W. Washington Street
Amarillo, TX
Jan 18 – Feb 19.

www.petercalvin.com
peter@petercalvin.com

http://multimedia.photojournale.com/the-soul-of-tango/

A story about the real tango, that it‚s not the celebrated Tango-Export, as the porteños call the glamorous tango shows for tourists in Buenos Aires, or the couples of dancers in the streets of San Telmo or La Boca. The dance and music that would become the tango, declared in 2009 part of the World’s
Cultural Heritage by the United Nations, has been created by European immigrants, mainly Italian and Spanish, freed African slaves and gauchos in Buenos Aires around the 1880s. In dirty places where sometimes tango’s deep soul still lives for aficionados, old cafès like Tango bar Lo de Roberto where dusty bottles and worn lyric sheets line the walls, where tango is not a dance, is poetry and songs played by traditional guitarists and tango singers. Or Bar del Chino in Pompeya, a popular district where tango was born, one of the few existing places in the world where tango is sung as it was 60 years ago. Here a group of remarkable veteran artists, unknown to the general public, express the real essence of tango, a particular way of seeing and enjoying life, without commercial tricks. Tango in Buenos Aires is a not only a world of artists but also of skilled craftsmen specialised in making shoes and dresses exported in many countries, or Radio Ciudad FM 92.7, a radio broadcasting 24 hours every day about tango. Old-fashioned milongas like the Confiteria Ideal, a magic setting for films like The Tango Lesson and Evita that brings back to the beginning of last century, dances are held every day and every night. Since the beginning of the 1990s, the tango culture in Buenos Aires has undergone dynamic development, and today one can choose from between fifteen and thirty different milongas every day.

Bio : Enrico Martino

Enrico Martino, a free-lance photojournalist based in Italy, contributed for many years to the main Italian magazines, following political and social events in Italy, Europe, Middle and Far East, Africa, USA and Latin America covering social and politic reportages. In the last years he specialized in travel photo and texts reportages. His work is characterized from a special focus on Latin America and Mexico. He is also member of the portal online of Latin American photographers Nuestra Mirada. The yearly collaboration with the magazine Meridiani, for which has realized nearly one hundred reportages, has allowed him to develop cultural and social reportages that are the focus of his professional and personal research. His work has been published in many Italian and European magazines: Meridiani, D-Repubblica, Epoca, Espresso, Panorama, Elle, Marie Claire, Europeo, Sette, Focus, Panorama Travel, In Viaggio, Airone, Atlante, Condé Nast Traveller, Tuttoturismo, Gente Viaggi, Merian, Altair, Courier International Der Spiegel, Die Zeit, Jeune Afrique, Rutas del Mundo,. He realized also some multidisciplinary projects focused on cities social problema, in Mexico City in collaboration with Mexican Caritas and in Turin with CNEL.

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Hermanos en el Camino | Brothers along the Road – Central American Migrants in Mexico

El defensor de los derechos de los migrantes José Alberto Donis se encuentra en peligro luego de haber recibido amenazas de muerte. José Alberto Donis trabaja en el hogar “Hermanos en el camino” en Ciudad Ixtepec, Estado de Oaxaca, México. Amnistía Internacional ha emitido una Acción Urgente a favor de José Alberto Donis y de sus compañeros, incluyendo al director del hogar, el Padre Alejandro Solalinde. Amnistía Internacional urge a las autoridades a proveer protección al personal del hogar y a investigar los hechos. La Acción Urgente puede encontrarse aquí:
http://amnesty.org/en/library/info/AMR41/084/2010/es <http://amnesty.org/en/library/info/AMR41/084/2010/es>

Este es un reportaje realizado en el año 2008, cuando José Alberto Donis acababa de llegar al Albergue “Hermanos en el camino”. A través de testimonios in situ pretende dar a conocer un punto del largo y clandestino camino que recorren miles de personas cada día, totalmente desprotegidas, huyendo de una realidad que pone a prueba su instinto de supervivencia. Un camino que tiene su origen en las calles de ciudades y pueblos de República Dominicana, Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador o Guatemala, y que nos conduce hasta la puerta del albergue del Padre Solalinde en Ixtepec, Oaxaca.

As the defender of the migrant rights Jose Alberto Donis is in danger of his life after having received death threats from a gang operating in Oaxaca, southern Mexico. Jose Alberto Donis works in the home ” Brothers along the Road” in Ixtepec City, Oaxaca providing shelter for the illegal immigrants as they travel north though Mexico. In the past month Amnesty International has announced an Urgent Action in support of Jose Alberto Donis and of his companions, including the director of the home, Father Alexander Solalinde, urging the police authorities to provide protection to the personnel at the home.
Jose Alberto Donis and his companions provide support for some of the thousands of clandestine immigrants that cross into Mexico every day, totally unprotected, fleeing from a reality that manifests as an instinct for survival. A way of life that has its origins in the streets of cities and towns of Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador or Guatemala, and that leads to the door of the shelter of Father Solalinde in Ixtepec, Oaxaca.

Photo documentary / photo journal story by Spanish photographer Noel Criado.

BIO : Noel Criado Photographer

Fotógrafo independiente. Barcelona, (España) 1975

Se inicia en la fotografía a los 26 años en los barrios de la ciudad de Caracas, Venezuela, donde comienza a realizar sus primeros proyectos documentales, noticias y reportajes. Desde hace 5 años centra su producción en temas relacionados con flujos migratorios y fronteras.
Actualmente combina la producción de reportajes para la agencia fotográfica GRAN ANGULAR, con trabajos publicitarios y la docencia de clases de fotografía narrativa en ELISAVA Escola Superior de Disseny y en el IDAT (Instituto de Arte y Tecnología).

links

72migrantes
Curso de Narrativa Visual en IDAT
Teatre Lliure – Infancia entre cayucos
Teatre Lliure – Narrativa visual de 2666 de Roberto Bolaño Fotos 1, Fotos2
Exposición en Museo Picasso

formación

· Licenciado en Administración y Dirección de Empresas por la Universidad de Barcelona y la Maastricht Universiteit, Netherlands.
· Estudios fotográficos en el Institut d’Estudis Fotogràfics de Catalunya (IEFC)
· Curso de especialización. (IEFC) Ensayo Fotográfico en zonas socialmente deprimidas y/o conflictivas. Dirigido por Sergi Reboredo.
· Taller internacional de fotoperiodismo de Ciudad de Gijón. Dirigido por Javier Bauluz.
· Taller internacional de fotoperiodismo de Albarracín. Dirigido por Gervasio Sánchez.
· Workshop MAGNUM (Traffic’09) dirigido por Chin-Chi Chang.

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Detroit is dying, Some saw Detroit is already dead. But to those who have a love affair with the grit and grime which is the motor city, this is simply a metamorphosis.
As a cyclist and urban dweller, I’ve always been fascinated with bike couriers. Like the Pony Express of the urban jungle, they risk life and limb to deliver the essential documents of the corporate canopy.
In this documentary, I felt that this was the embodiment of a beautiful metaphor: as the great auto industry burns out, a small spark of life flickers at Detroit’s core – the simple and sustainable business of delivery by bike.
One phone call later, I was chasing Tim Sargent, owner of Rock Dove Courier company, down Woodward Ave., dodging pylons, parked cars, and red lights. Energy, thrill and passion, back-dropped by the empty skyscrapers and relics of the old American dream.
Through the exciting life of a bike courier, this collection represents the life of rick and creativity which is essential for those that have any hope for the survival of Detroit’s present and future.

Bio

Troy Shantz is a documentary photographer based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Educated in Radio and Television Broadcasting at Conestoga College in Ontario, (Canada), Troy started his media career as a freelance news videographer and producer.
Troy has since transitioned into documentary media production, mainly through photography. His focus is on long-term projects with a humanitarian emphasis.