"Your guest is your God." My life at Kathputli Colony.

My Photo scholarship 2010 entry

Worldwide | Sunday, October 17, 2010 | 4 photos

I hail from Chicago, Illinois but have been living on and off outside of the United States since 2004 mainly working in International Development. My work has taken me all over the world from Malawi to Guatemala and back again. These incredible journeys re-sparked my interest in Anthropology and inspired me to develop skills to be able to share the incredible stories and people I encountered. As a result, I moved to the UK in 2008 to get my masters in visual anthropology with a concentration in ethnographic documentary. I am a trained filmmaker but I do not have training in photography, though it is definitely my first love.

The photos I've submitted were taken during my fieldwork in India. I came to Delhi to research and make a film in the slum, Kathputli Colony which houses 9,000 residents about half of which are artists; my focus was on the gypsy artists that had historically been nomads but now called this colony home.

I arrived in the colony at a critical time; the slum was in preparation to be dismantled under a rehabilitation plan, so during my stay, I experienced the last months of this remarkable community.

The photos selected are a narrative of my time in the colony. These images demonstrate where my eye gravitated to in the midst overwhelming technicolor and chaos. I took hundreds upon hundreds of images but these remain indelible in my mind based on the individuals they capture and the moment we shared. They capture a nostalgia that was even more pronounced by the knowledge that the colony would soon end. I titled the gallery "your guest is your God"; this Hindu expression often used is in truth the only way for me to explain my time in Kathputli Colony. I was welcomed in as family and the hospitality I received can only be described as feeling like a deity in human form.