In the Shadows

In Das’s works,the children at work have downcast eyes as they roll the tobacco leaves,their bodies emaciated and their childhood disappearing into dark hovels of the factory. She also has shocking images of bidi rollers whose bodies have been wasted by tuberculosis,and who are wizened and old at the age of 16. “A single photograph can tell an entire story,” says Das.

These are contrasted well with Soni’s images of the Salwa Judum where boys and men clean their rifles as women in uniform get trained in wielding arms. Burnt bodies of goats lie scattered near charred homes as Soni documents the overreaching violence in Farsegad village in Nagpur,between Maoists and adivasis armed by the local government. “I have spent four years documenting the situation in these villages torn by violence and sometimes I did not know whether I would return home alive,” says Soni.

Madheshiya,on his part,has dismissed the notion that lives of street-children are always painful. He has zeroes in on poetic and intimate moments of these children,showing them celebrating life with friends.