As and when the problem of image representation in photography comes, it is approached purely from technological perspectives, mainly driven by technological fineness in the making of the images. Hence, Kendal Walton in his seminal essay terms the shift from optical-chemical to optical electronic and how image becomes more transparent digital. There is an exploration of minuteness in photographic images that allows the viewers to peep into the world of otherwise invisible in nature. The early photographic images are full of exoticism along with colonial lens to the romantic village representation, including poverty of the people. There have been quest on the part of photographers engaging themselves in exploring claimed ‘spirituality’ of claimed ‘modern’ nation and its landscape to showcase image as ‘the (god) given condition’.

Many urban-based photographers have explored images of rural India as a part of their ‘romanticism’ than exploring the real nature of village as a hub of social evils and the ways in which inequalities are still practised in such hubs all over India. It has ‘Gandhian’ idea of ideal Indian village and ‘romanticism of poverty as divinely conditions’. There is a difference between a ‘Photograph’ as 1) exotic, 2) what gets captured, and 3) as an invitation to enter the world of an invisible territory. The third category deals with many evil practices the Indian caste-Hinduness has been nurturing over a period of time. It also proposes to contest the claims of so-called ‘spirituality’ as well as ‘divinely given conditions’. Meaning process revealed through photographic images hits, shatters the existence of being human. It is in this context Dr. B. R. Ambedkar’s formulation of ‘rules and principle’ becomes an important means to unfold a phenomenon of ‘conditions’ and our responses to such ‘conditions’. Dr. Ambedkar writes, “Rules are practical; they are habitual ways of doing things according to prescription. But principles are intellectual; they are useful methods of judging things. Rules seek to tell an agent just what course of action to pursue. Principles do not prescribe a specific course of action”-Dr. B. R. Ambedkar in Annihilation of Caste. Thus, one will have to see how images in photography are conceptualized.

Poverty being concentrated in a social stratification, images of poverty in India has been that of concealments of its social but the photographic images of Sudharak Olwe have revealed such social stratifications. Ambedkarian lens of sensitization empowers to get into invisibilities of psychotic perversions of social real and capture them through image representation as a part of means to be part of democratic responsibilities and be with the projects of unfolding fixities of India’s love for mass consumption of the mythic. Sudharak’s quest to unfold the real social is the most pioneering effort, for which the Government of India conferred him with ‘Padma Shri’ civilian award in 2016. The other noteworthy photographer who followed Sudharak is Arun Vijai Mathavan based in Chennai who challenged the very world of health care ethical practices in the real sense of the term.  In the present context of ‘pandemic’, the works of five photographers i.e. Sudharak Olwe, Aparna Olwe, SL Shanth Kumar, M Palanikumar, T Narayanan, and Rituraj have assumed special importance as for the fact that they are all socially-engaged in many ways. Their geographic locations are spread all over India touching all the four directions. It’s an attempt to map their social photography practices to showcase invisible nature of their social explorations.

The pandemic of COVID-19-19 stoked great fear in the world. It exposed widely how claims of being ‘powerful’ have been part of ‘protected ignorance’. Pandemic vulnerability is real and a danger of wiping out the present of human being is marred with uncertainties. In the Indian context, COVID-19-19 is a disease of the ‘passport holding travellers’ but the ‘ration card’ holders are the one paying price in the pandemic. While ‘Vande Bharat’ mission has been conceptualized to ferry the citizens stuck on the foreign land, no such zeal and provisions are in place for the ‘ration card’ holders living inside the nation. The Shramik Specials ran at the mercy of the government without any commitments of timing and rolling stocks. Linguistic claims of being ‘modern’, ‘Make in India’, ‘Incredible India’, ‘Pride of being great’, ‘trillion dollar economy’ or ‘one of the seventh largest economies’, etc., have fallen apart as for the fact that millions of ‘ration card’ holders have no stakes in such hefty claims.

While the world is busy fighting the pandemic through all its rational might, India being a nation entrenched in mythic as real has preferred the routes of irrationalities to fight the pandemic. Being ‘mythical’ in its culture of sacred and divine, the Indian leadership appealed people to follow those ‘mythic’ rituals of ‘clapping’, ‘banging plates’, blowing conch, etc. to fight the COVID-19-19 pandemic and the worst was that ‘educated’, ‘celebrities’, ‘political leaders’, and mass public participation were the signs of ‘poverty of mind-consciousness’. It exposed as to how Indian caste society is getting governed in the acclaimed ‘seventh largest economies’ in the world where health care and right to basic human rights has no existence in its practical terms. 

This pandemic is similar to that of a holocaust. Photo images are the repository of unfolding the danger of extinction, secondary citizenship, police state, and many uncontrolled natures of Indians. Documenting such a phenomena is a process of bringing invisible nature of the plight of people to the naked eyes that otherwise privileged citizens of the Republic of India have always concealed and protected under the idea of ‘sacred’ and ‘divine’. Large body of the photographic images is telling truth of the nation and how falsehood is convenient in the mythic cultural syndrome. The human part of the subject, the subjective self of the photographer as a part of responsibility of citizenship of the Republic of India, it is a process of revelations and part of Article 51 of the Indian Constitution. ‘Representation’ being an embedded category, responsive self in capturing life of people and their ghettoized conditions has become means and practices of photography. Capturing those social categories that are invisible also pose challenges to many normative that have been carried since generational practices. Life, in this regard, is viewed as ‘normative’ but photographic images are the modest attempt to contest such normative. Nurturing those normative has created hindrances in everyday life.

S L Shanth Kumar is based in Mumbai and went in the interior of the houses to capture narrative of the pandemic. His images are heavy in its visual construction, capturing the stark unimaginable image of taking water from the stranded dirty water of the drainage. Water a basic need of the human life has turned into a luxury in the urban spaces. Some wear mask, whereas some do not. Their huts along with the drainage are a sight of ‘vibhatsa’ for the citizens of Republic of India. Both exterior and interior physical distancing has become a mere slogan and administrative impositions of these dictums are though aimed at ‘control’ of pandemic but images capturing interiors defy the logic of physical distancing as for the fact that the ‘ration card’ holders have been living in those miseries only. The health worker and experts are examining the x-ray images of COVID-19 chest and trying to figure out the COVID-19 fissures in the thoracic cage. Their personal protection kits are too generic and have no technological sanctity of the claimed ‘refinedness’ that is otherwise claimed in the medical system of the country. Peeping into the glass surface, walls, and captures fear with fearlessness, people on the streets, empty streets are some of the characteristic of Shant kumar’s images.

T. Narayan is based in the national capital and captures the dirt and hopelessness in the national capital. His images are powerful means to look into the inside of the capital city of India. The photo image of a wall painting making salute to Corona warriors, there is a conspicuous absence of the sanitation workers. While police, doctors, even TV reporters, delivery boys are depicted but the sanitation workers and other staff associated with the COVID-19 pandemic are conspicuously absent. It’s a classic case of urban caste hierarchy.  He meticulously captured migrants on the streets of Delhi. If plight of people is not even addressed in the city of national capital, the hope to have an institution of hopes become erosion of political faith in the state as well as institutions of power. Burning of a dead body into the electrical chamber, the workers paying last tribute to the dead body are all the examples of vulnerability of human being caught in the imposed and imported calamities. Narayanan prefers to go on locations where he gets engaged with his subjects in an attempt to capture narratives of momentariness and in the process, both the still and unstill objects move in the picture frames to show heavily conditions of human situations.

Sudharak being involved in documenting communities and their invisible territories finds the condition of pandemic more susceptible to the caste system of the Indian society. He sets out on the streets of Mumbai as part of his own activism and getting connected with people and work for their cause as part of social responsibility of the citizen of the Republic. Pandemic conditions have forced people to remain at home and live on the mercy of others. The urban poor and ration cardholders have been in the queue for demanding equality and basic human rights. Thriving crowded cities never witnessed empty streets, stopping of bus and local train services. Banners of forbidding territories, ladies queue to get their everyday living, empty flyovers and how people have gathered on the public circle of the street depicting the icons of Svarajya, Gitarahasya, Kesari of Mr. Balgangadar Tilak, people going in crowded trucks to their respective home towns and the worst is lining of the people waiting to get their turn to go home by trains and buses. Walking to the native place on the streets had become order of the day that never attracted immediate attention of the government agencies. Their eyes full of expectations and walking on the road in the hope to reach home in collective efforts are the images of the narratives of the COVID-19-19 holocaust hovering on their minds all the time. Sudharak dared to move with health workers involved in COVID-19-19 pandemic team to many localities in his endeavors to capture how the unsung heroes work in the society. While health workers are engaged in fighting the pandemic, the so called educated and living in the flats are shown taking their hands out to clap and bang plates on the directives of the political leadership that has advocated culture of mythic as an imagined reality of hope and deliverance.

Rituraj is based in Guwahati, a state capital and a hub of political activities and conflicts. Migration in the area of north east is captured by the photo images of Rituraj. The young and old are part of the images. Families and communities when are forced to face common problems, police administration’s attitude of ordering people suddenly gets legitimacy which is otherwise becomes difficult. The idea of social distancing through chairs placed in the ground, railway station queues, and the worst clapping and banging of plates by the so called educated class have become concerns in the images of Rituraj. Randomness is very common in Rituraj images, but his aim is to get into every space possible to cover the images of the other side.

M Palanikumar is based in Chennai and has worked on the sanitary workers in the city of Chennai. COVID-19 has not brought any change to these sanitary workers who are continuously been engaged in their work as part of essential services. But when it comes to their remunerations, they are either left to contractors or are never absorbed into the regular services. His photo images can easily tell you the areas that are captured especially the areas that are otherwise banned by the administration and the necessary measures do not become part of their sociological existence. His construction of photo-space captures monumentality of picture space, exterior being a larger concern; the sanitary workers during the COVID-19 pandemic are forced to dispose waste manually. It defies the idea of claims of national pride. The ‘nationalist’ would like to bypass these darker sides of the citizenship whereas the patriots will indeed think about nation’s people as first priority.

Aparna’s attempt is to capture city’s area of labourers and go close to capture people waiting for their turn in public spaces to either get their subsistence or go home. Her idea of capturing deep-recessed images of the narrow lanes is to unpack not only living conditions but also to capture the panic cased by the pandemic to such locations. Aparna always steps into perfect composition of balance so that the subjects are captured in their natural settings and unfold their nature of existence. Images are not exclusively about closed spaces but also about people working in the COVID-19 conditions, as they have no option and affordability to remain at home and keep away from the disease of COVID-19. It may also be observed that how people risking their lives have been involved in distribution of food for the others. Carrying of the food packets on the hand trolley and distributing them to people is a glaring example of fraternity towards a responsive self. We hear many narratives of people who are engaged in charity during pandemic in various ways, but we often hear less about people from the lower strata how they have been actively engaged in many relief measures on their own despite the fact that they are ‘ration card’ holders.

Prof. Y. S. Alone

School of Arts and Aesthetics, Jawaharlal Nehru University New Delhi.

Presently he is working at School of Arts and Aesthetics, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi from 8 th March 2007 onwards. Previously he worked at Dept. of Archaeology, Deccan College Post Graduate Research Institute (deemed university) Pune and at Dept of Fine Arts Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra.

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