India: children - part 4

Wow! Stunning!

Another great series. Difficult to keep up the high standard you showed us the previous series, but you did well. Lots of dirty noses here, but of course you can't help that

I don't think Svjetlana intented to offense anyone in anyway and I'm really impressed by the way she could capture beauty where one wouldn't expect to see it. So thanks for this "fleurs du mal" approach/experience.
Skm.sa100 and Dragos - I guess it's in our power to change the wrong perspective people might have with regards to our countries and Dyxum is a very good place to do that. I haven't been very successfull in depicting a beutiful Romania, but just take a look at Mihai-Ian's work and the feed-back he received - he IS a great ambassador for my country!   

Edit: Svjetlana, could you post links to the other posts in this serie, as I seem to have missed 2 of them. Thanks!

Thank you for your comments.
@skm.sa100: First time when you stirred my humanity is when you used term "regular children". I think that term has very different meaning for me. Implying that those children I portrayed are not regular because they look poor to you is something I strongly disagree. To me material poverty has nothing to do with real poverty, poverty of the heart and of the soul, not having any inner qualities. I haven't seen richer kids for long time until Indian "poor looking" kids. You have failed to look deeply in the eyes of these kids and to see their wealth and beauty. You have failed to see their joy, happiness, depth, curiosity of life, serenity, even sadness… a real life which is bursting inside of their hearts and eyes. They are very much alive human beings. I haven't seen this kind of vivid life in children's eyes for long time. What I usually see in the eyes of children nowadays is numbness. They are comfortably numbed by extensive wealth, without enough care and love, with loneliness, with numbing electronic devices and not spending enough time with other kids, having very poor social skills and becoming very selfish. That is the only way they know, nobody teaches them how to be the other way. It is not their fault but it is the way how it is. None of these things are known to the kids I pictured. That's why they are so beautiful and that's why people like seeing their images, because we can see the beauty and life in their big beautiful eyes.
So to me those kids are "regular", not the other way around. Most of the children I pictured came to me. I did not choose them, they chose me. If you really looked in my previous threads then you must have noticed children from train which do not look poor.
As for sadhus: would it be possible to go to India and not see them? They are the icons of Varanasi and they are beautiful human beings. They are spiritual people who practice nonviolence and peace. There is nothing negative about that. If you look for the beauty on the outside, you will never find it because it is not possible to find it there. One can be only happy if one "looks" good inside otherwise we would all fix ourselves on the outside and became happy. As you know very well this is not recipe for happiness. How many people today had plastic surgeries in hope to become happier but they are not because this is not possible. One has to become happy inside in order to achieve such a goal.   
I had no intention to teach you lectures on morality but when you said that I had portrayed a negative side of India, that stirred my heart again.
It seems to me that what is negative India for you is positive India for me. The qualities I portrayed with these people are slowly disappearing in the world and I was so happy to find them again in India. But for that one has to look with their heart not with the eyes.
You may remember the picture of Afghan Girl? Do you think that her poor outfit is important in this picture or is it the look in her eyes?
When I look at human face and especially eyes, I look for humanity and what makes us human. I don't see human beauty in a nice outfit. That is the beauty of the outfit, not what is underneath. I see the beauty in eyes which are continuation of our hearts.
Your perspective on what is beautiful may be very different from mine and that is fine with me because after all, beauty is in the eye of beholder.

@svjetlana


Well said, well photographed and better yet, well documented.

Those eyes are beautiful.. but the dirty noses...yek

Your story moved me and I think that is the power of your pictures.
You can capture portraits behind the eyes.

Svjetlana,

Sorry I missed these earlier, but they are awesome. It is my belief that no one does better environmental portraits than you do, and these show it. These expressive portraits instantly stir up an imaginary story in mind about the character portrayed, and I think that us the ultimate compliment on your work that you manage to do that so often, at least for me.   Thank you for the wonderful explanation.

Looking forward of some more.