Kinare. A public outdoor exhibition in Varanasi, India,
January 2008

 

I brought a series of photographs home to their birthplace in Varanasi, India, as a gesture of gratitude to the city and all the people who allowed me to photograph them. The prints needed to be large and cheap to produce, as they were sure to deteriorate quickly outdoors. I made posters by taping together laserjet printouts. Once in Varanasi, friends helped me paste up the prints around the stone walls of Assi Ghat, a riverside neighborhood where many of the photographs were made.

Although I had lived in Varanasi for two years, I wasn’t sure how people would react to images that portray their lives so starkly. Perhaps the photographs would be seen as spying and torn from the walls by local priests. On the other hand, they might not even be noticed in the bustling pilgrimage scene.

We quickly found out while pasting up the prints that the neighborhood was thrilled with them. Dozens of children wanted to get their hands into the glue. The older spectators ran their fingers over the prints, as if to reach into the realm of the image. The scene made a delightful contrast to the cloistered, hands-off gallery world.

The next day the prints were already ripped, wrinkled and streaked with grime, which gave them a dilapidated charm. Their life span was up to the city itself, and the allotted time proved to be only a few days. The edges of the prints lifted and they became fodder for the neighborhood cows, goats, and buffalo, who came along and munched them right off the walls. There was report of a princely camel who made his breakfast of a whole row of prints. I could ask for no finer conclusion to an exhibition than that.

 

 

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