…or getting very near to it while being around other people is hard in itself in a big city like London or Mumbai, leave alone trying to photograph life in some Indian village where no foreigner have set foot before. Add a particularly crowded environment – Uttar Pradesh holds around 200 million people in an area the size of France – and a big black camera to the melting pot, and you can be sure to receive plenty of attention.
I have been struggling before with the ethical dilemma of balancing between the time spent with the villagers because they are mostly kind, enjoyable and welcoming people, and the ‘need’ to be shooting for my projects to move forward. When the time is ripe to collect images, being surrounded by people who do not ‘belong in the story’ can be unnerving and if managed improperly can affect the reporting altogether.
Apart from the technical and visual sides like composition, lighting, the decisive moment, colour, meaning and more, one has to deal with a critical part of the image: the subject. As a general rule bearing exceptions, it should be portrayed naturally in its environment. Of course there are photographic projects that are based on a totally different perspective and where portraits are arranged, lights are positioned and images shot.
Other portraits are straight-on with subjects looking at the camera and much recent award-winning imagery has been shot this way. However, I generally prefer most of my photographs to portray ‘natural’ subjects or to go as close as possible to it.
It was in the village of Chandenamal, (pop. 1500) in Muzaffarnagar District, more then a year ago, on my first in-depth project in rural India that I faced a serious challenge in shooing the images I needed because the interest in me so many locals showed.
When most children in India would desist in following me for more than a few minutes, here not only they would be there with me for a long time, but they would multiply! People would appear on the rooftops or would peek over the walls, making it really hard to photograph freely even when inside a home, and to avoid ‘unwanted external elements’ affecting the images.
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Some crowd in downtown Chandenamal.
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After discussing the issue online with other photojournalist working in similar conditions, I would like to share part of the helpful advice which emerged from the discussion:
1) Take time. The more you spend within the same community / family, the better access and less attention you will get to photograph meaningful natural moments.
2) Little gear and bags. Bring only the essential.
3) Talk to the people around you, shoot, than talk again and so on. It needs to be a flow, and when a window of opportunity for a good shot is there, take it.
4) You want natural pictures? Be faster than they are.
5) Not too fast though. Sometimes, incredibly, you go unnoticed and shooting before being in the right position might alert the subject, however moving too near too fast might result in a similar problem.
6) Use a dummy photographer / translator to distract the spectators away from the subjects.
7) Taking some snapshots seems a small price to pay for what you are receiving in return — a generous welcome into a community, the time and attention of people who no doubt have better things to do than tend to you. You’ll be fed and given tea, just because this is what Indian custom calls for. The only things you have to reciprocate are your own time and attention — and if you are a photographer, that means taking some snaps. You are getting back far more than you are giving.
8) Welcome in India!! People are curious and you have to deal with this behaviour.
9) Try not to be invisible. The best approach to getting inside a situation or a location is to make your presence felt, and to become part of that situation and location in such a way that people start to move on and/or consider you to belong. Be a photographer, be clear about why you are standing there and speak to people, engage them in the act, get them involved, and share. The goal is to produce images that suggest that you were invisible. (if that is the goal) Some places will be harder than others of course, but in the end you will have to accept that the only way to work through such situations is to engage in them, and to leave yourself open and vulnerable to the crowd, to interact with it, and to simply continue to remain alert to the photo possibilities.
10) Be patient. Look around in all directions. Accept that you might miss some good images to shoot other images which are equally as good or probably even better and more relevant to the story. This can’t be closer to the truth as one of my favourite images from this set on industrial pollution was shot only minutes after the image above, when the Sun was setting, the time was tight, and the ‘bridge at Sunset’ picture opportunity had clearly become unavailable.
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I experimented with the methods outlined in this discussion from quite some time now and I have realised that something has changed within me after spending more and more time observing, understanding and shooing in India.
The answer, for me, is finding the right mixture of going with the flow, planning and engaging with the people and subjects in every different situation that might be presented to us.
Researching, keeping needs and plans under control is also very important to productivity in-location. In most cases they help in building a stronger and more cost-effective project. Many times they are essential to the end results of the story while problems might also arise due to confusion or inaccuracies.
However, falling under the pressure of gathering material too quickly without allowing oneself to ‘step-in’ the story put you at risk of producing an average story with little chances to be remembered.
Balance, perseverance, and of course up-to-date information and cultural knowledge, are elements that help when working on medium to long-term stories which are likely to leave an impression and document a story in-depth and with intimacy.
I have to say things have improved quite a lot right now, I keep enjoying visiting villages and since a few months I have surely found a better balance with India altogether, and I like it.
Here for more images about pollution and its effects on children in Uttar Pradesh.
