Standing Tall, a photo from Gujarat, West

Photographer's Note

This is Kaliben. She is the sole breadwinner in her household of 6. She has four children and that is her husband at the back. Chelabhai (husband) had an accident some years ago, whilst at work - he used to drive a pedal rickshaw. This somehow left him unable to speak and work. Since then, Kaliben supports everybody in the household by collecting rubbish from the streets of Ahmedabad. She does this seven days a week, sometimes more than 14hours per day. She suffers terrible backpains as she is continuously bending over to pick things up and put them into her rag bag. She eats nothing all day, whilst her eldest daughter takes care of household duties in her absence.

They live next door to Nanda. After spending three months with Nanda, meeting Kaliben had a curious effect on me. She awakened something inside me. She is also physically beautiful.

Also for your information, Kaliben is Gauriben's sister.

Project: Underexposed - Lights in Dark Spaces

neoplanet, nostromo47, prantik, KevRyan, luisafonso, noborders, Glint has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

nostromo47 (803) 2007-07-20 4:08

Hi Kajal,

excellent note and psycological shot!! :)

Best wishes!!

Furachan (0) 2007-07-20 4:59

Whatever you are doing with color, Kajal, it's working - I mean I'm getting pretty sensitive to tones and color shifts because, uh...I dablbe in it a bit myself. So here goes: I like what you're doing with yellows as well as the contrast and depth you get - it's consistent too so you know what you're doing. Your kit lens is...okay but not one of the great pieces of glass around so I give you a ot of the credit for that "burnished" look I see in your work. Position of the woman, a GIANT next t the man behind, is extremely well judged.
Powerful stuff,
Francis

prantik (1136) 2007-07-20 5:45

Her name should have been Laxmiben.
Another great storytelling with the choice of relative scaling and light, colour and framing. Your careful selection of these attributes is so bang on target that you did not even need the note.

best
P

sidstakes (772) 2007-07-20 6:04

Good positioning of your subjects...and the colours here look very appealing...great!

KevRyan (22956) 2007-07-22 23:50

This image portrays such dignity Kaj......in human terms it shows the promise of what might have been for these good people in a world where they had a different level of support or way of life who lnows what they might have achieved.....although what Kaliben does achieve daily to support her family is more remarkable than the daily work of almost anyone I know.......it brings them to notice in a daily world where no one of any 'rank' would notice them.........except the most compassionate......your photographic skills were tested through this series and your skills of relating to other human beings perhaps blossomed more fully.......together they resulted in a document of great importance to my mind.

best wishes Kev

luisafonso (862) 2007-07-25 1:30

She awakened something inside me. A sentence I could use to describe how I feel looking at the majority of your photos... What you've done here is simply touching. Ducking yourself to crown this woman and portrait her as a queen leaves me without words. Perfect light dear Kaj. Perfect light in the broad meaning of the word...

noborders (1010) 2007-08-01 6:11

I love to read those personal stories and the way you portray her is interesting, indeed she looks tall and then it is no surprise if she suffers from back problems, and I hope that she could find some solution (but could she find another job, less demanding ?) to get over this problem, otherwise she'll suffer more... Life is so hard for some of those women...
TFS, an interesting post like many of your stories about rubbish collectors,
Best regards,
Cath.

Glint (6171) 2007-08-03 7:38

hello Kajal,
wonderful striking image. Excellent POV. The Lady in Red if ever there was one. Dare i ask you to further elucidate what it was about Kaliben that had such an effect on you? Perhaps it should be obvious to me but after three months with Nanda you say you were especially effected by this particular woman.
with special regard,
Bev

touristdidi (8583) 2007-08-11 9:53 [Comment]