red barber #3…

My third year of photographing the red barber of Buddavaram (see previous posts here and here), one of  my photos from last year is still up on his wall…

Even customers waiting got into the act. This is a requested portrait, both by the barber and this man with the rather fine head of hair…

For all previous photos of the red barber photo see my flickr set here

santa clause is coming to town…

One of santa’s helpers – actually it’s Naga Babu, one of my students, he wants to be a film maker and he is a great photographer will post some of his photos later…back to Santa…

Well, Santa Clause has been and went already…Here in the orphanage he comes on the 23rd of December (all the way from Italy). He has his photo taken with each child and gives each of them a Kitkat!

All the kids from both orphanages are here…so that’s well over 1000. Afterwards is my favourite part when Santa and his “sleigh” leave the campus and parade through the neighbouring village of Budawaram, with the whole orphanage following…surreal and marvellous!!!

santa in the orphanage

santa in Buddavaram

carol singing in telegu…

in search of the red barber…

…ah the red barber, i had such plans for him… i wanted to interview him, maybe even make a small documentary…but i was always very busy with the kids and it was hard to get someone to come with me to translate…

Finally, near the end of my stay i managed to arrange for Dalayya to come with me to speak with him. As luck would have it, the very moment we arrived, a very loud publicity car parked in front of his shed booming a commercial about pesticides…the car remained as did the soundtrack drowning out all possibilities of conversation. I have to say that in the 6 weeks i was in Buddavaram i never saw this car…except for this one time when i was trying to record an interview…oh well…

things i did manage to ascertain:

being a barber is a family trait handed down to him
the business is his
he decorated the shed himself
he likes red
his brother is also a barber
it costs 20 – 30 rupees for a haircut
it costs 10 rupees for a shave

the red barber’s brother – also a barber

As a thank you for all the times i photographed him and his patience and good humour, i took him a copy of one of the photos. Next time i passed i saw he had pinned it up. I was chuffed, you can see it in the photo below on the right…

See my flickr page for full red barber set so far

the neem tree…

The Neem tree is a big deal in these parts, worshipped by the Hindus and also revered for its healing antiseptic properties…everybody has a use for it…from cleaning their teeth with the twigs, to using the sap from the leaves for small wounds…to an anti dandruff treatment…Below Malathi tells the whole story why it is so revered, and how she uses it in her life.

The banana tree in an embrace with the neem tree outside a Hindu temple in Buddavaram

photography boys…

Some of my senior photography class on a field trip to the neighbouring village. Nice, kind, intelligent, funny boys…incredible considering the start they had in life. Some of their work from that day below:

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Dalayya, Santosh, Harsha, mvp, Syam, Ravi Teja, Daniel – the pose was all their idea

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Actually the boys manage to take photos i would never get. I do seriously instruct them about being respectful about taking photos and to never take one if someone seems uncomfortable. Being local boys they wander in and out of houses (asking first of course) effortlessly…i am always reticent…

I would also like to single out this shot taken by Dalayya, also my student from last year. Sometimes i would let him keep the camera overnight. He lives in the Lake Home with the other older boys and he came back with this photo which blew me away. It is like something out of a Scorcese movie and gives something of the atmosphere of how it must be to live in this house with these boys. He did not really understand why i liked it so much and he consistently took great photos but this one is my absolute favourite…