People of Madras
Ep. 12
Palani Kumar

Palani Kumar’s work has pushed the lens beyond passive consumption, and his images invoke a visceral, painful reaction. He endeavours to capture the jaded smiles, the thinking eyes and the world-weary wrinkles of marginalised people. Through photographs, “unspoken things can be revealed; things you are uncomfortable to verbalise can be shown instead of spoken. While the pain cannot be captured in a still, their emotions can be”.

 

Palani is currently a staff photographer for the People’s Archive of Rural India, documenting the lives of working-class women. He captured the trauma of trans folk artists in Madurai, the plight of sanitation workers of GCC, the cracked palms of Irular fisherwomen in the Buckingham Canal and the harrowing tales of manual scavengers in Tamil Nadu. 

 

He poignantly states that photography allows the spectator to “relive their (the subject) lives through the lens”. He says, “I learnt great knowledge from them and am doing this work to highlight the inequalities that persist and are ignored”. He wishes to question the state of affairs, to show the brutal realities of hundreds who inhabit the city and how the onus lies on us to shatter the ignorant status quo. His lack of formal training was not a deterrent, and his journey has been one of evolution.

 

His key contribution has been raising essential awareness of the subject of manual scavenging - cleaning, handling and segregating excrement. Sanitation workers work in the most unsanitary of conditions, ones that have caused deaths by asphyxiation and the deprivation of basic human rights. Indeed, it is to be acknowledged as an abominable failure of modern society to safeguard the marginalised. Palani values his craft as a “weapon, a tool through which the unrecognised is highlighted”. Shutters through which we are able to witness a mix of misery and remarkable resilience in those smiles and cries. It is difficult and draining, but he “finds strength in the words and wisdom of Ambedkar and Periyar”. 

 

Images remain, penetrating our imaginations and lingering in our thoughts well after the lights of the exhibit have been dimmed.

 

#peopleofmadras

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@chempkumar

🖋  Muna Buhari