Soumyadip Ghosh Other People's Clothes

                                                 Shown at the Documentary Arts Asia Gallery in November 2012. 

Soumyadip Ghosh: Other People’s Clothes

“My work tries to look upon the condition of the workers working in the textile industry, and be a living witness and record their recollections,I wanted to hear their memories and reminiscences, the effort was to represent how the workers working in such environmentally hazardous conditions struggle for their existence. What fascinated me is the way they are happy, in that dark gloomy , smelly noisy space, they work , toil,struggle to exist, their faces are pale ,down, their eyes look hungry , their clothes are shabby, but somewhere in the deepest core of the heart there are some ray of hope , some joy , some rejuvenation. One is happy to say “I am the head mechanic” earning only  dollar per day. They say it with pride. They know that they may not live long, But the still try to find a reason , a meaning , to stay alive the basic and primary instinct of human being perhaps..”

“Clothes make the man. But men and women who make the clothes for other people are often left behind.  As of 2009,  hundreds of mills in Ahmadabad have shut down, so this scene, which had been ubiquitous in Ahmadabad – the “Manchester of India” has disappeared.But  still today the steam engines are running at some of  textile factories in the city at the Sabarmati River. The factories producing fabrics which are offered later on the world markets. Mahatma Gandhi once founded his ashram here. He sat at his spinning wheel and spread his ideas of a nation of equality, tolerance and nonviolence. But today the Indian reality looks very different.”

Soumyadip Ghosh

Soumyadip has always been interested in realities different from those we are familiar with. He constantly stop to observe society, attracted by people who emerge from the general pattern. Today, society, political and economic frameworks, solitude in the midst of the chaos of our day and the desire to have everyone fit some standard mould; influence the growth of a younger generation which often finds the answer to the search for itself in not choosing and therefore accepting easier and less-challenging situations. There is also a different reality which must be portrayed.

“I started photography with a hope that it will enrich me with the visual training as a significant part of the general preparation of a free, self-reflective person who can participate consciously, appropriately, and fully in contemporary society and can also emphasize value-based teaching, learning, and research that focus on respect for others, respect for oneself, and respect for the process of interacting with others.”

www.soumyadipghosh.com

 

Documentary Arts Asia is delighted to exhibit these images of India at our Chiang Mai Gallery. Please join us on Friday, November 2nd for a night of conversation, reflection and images captured by one of the most talented, emerging photographer from India.