RAMESH SINGH BOUNDARY
This was my third visit to the Bengali settlement of bicycle rickshaw drivers. Most Indians have cell phones and therefore cameras. But the rickshaw driver families in their tiny houses don’t spend money on getting prints of photographs and are eager to have their photographs taken and to get copies of the photographs. They get the photographs which only cost about 5 cents apiece and I get the chance to photograph them. Sharing printed photographs is the best way to be invited to take photographs and to be allowed to photograph anything I want to.
The children soon learn that holding an animal of some kind will get me to take a photograph, although I would would photograph everyone who asked me to. Almost every photograph includes children. But I think that the ducks and chickens and dogs and rabbits in they are holding also shows a connection to pets that shows that pets enrich their lives. I also noticed that outside almost every small house there are potted plants and every house has photographs and colorful calendars on the walls. They don’t have much money for decorations or pets, but there really isn’t much difference between the way I decorate my house and they way they decorate theirs and this is a connection between us.
BILLYBABA’S WANDERING 