SNAKECHARMING | Wednesday, March 31, 2021
#SNAKECHARMING: to underline the point that this tradition is dying, the chief’s son - backing away in the doorway - has lost control of the snake, and has been saved by his friend. Mike Davis, the great picture editor, observed that he’s looking out and not at the cobra suggesting he’s more worried about what other people are thinking. #india #vadi #nomads #tribes #gujarat #snake #cobra
TRIBE | Wednesday, March 31, 2021
#TRIBE: the chief of the #Vadi here is a magician and crack snake charmer. The tribe has suffered from the outlawing of snake charming - seven years in prison - without any alternative or assistance given by the government. I was upset to discover that in 2018, four women from this tribe were attacked and one was killed after accusations of child kidnapping. There is way too much to unpack in a single Instagram post, but it’s complicated. Outlawing traditional livelihoods is one thing - once you’ve seen the awfulness of dancing bears, you’d sign the legislation - but leaving people in poverty and starvation is another. #india #nomads #gujarat #photojournalism #snake #cobra #snakecharmer
NOMADS | Wednesday, March 31, 2021
#NOMADS: I met a a very famous photographer whose style I spent the summer of 2009 ripping-off, and he was photographing many of the same subjects as me. He gave me tons of great advice and one key point was that he thought it very important that I show them on the move. I finally nailed it after many weeks. The men have already left with the cattle, the women pack up camp and travel to the next site, literally carrying their beds. #tribes #gujarat #india #photojournalism
CHILDLINE | Wednesday, March 31, 2021
#CHILDLINE: this is the makeshift office of childline at #ahmedabad stations, staffed by runaways who are attuned to children on their own on the trains. This is from the documentary I couldn’t make, but there’s an amazing community of young people and kids with stories of abuse too harrowing to remember let alone retell right now. #childabuse #india #railways #runaway
TRIBES | Wednesday, March 31, 2021
#TRIBES: several decades ago I made the fairly trite observation to my cousin that #India would never get anywhere until it addressed equality between men and women. We could clearly see that the practice of female infanticide would only lead to a problematic male-female ratio. And here we are, with one single woman somehow wangling her way into the community meeting, kinda illustrating that point. And many other points. #nomads #sexism #photojournalism
