16 fisherwomen go about a day’s work with a DSLR in hand

In Tamil Nadu’s Nagapattinam, women are at work, deep in the waters, fishing for prawns with their bare hands. Often, they injure themselves while performing this labour-intensive task that requires mastered deftness. Other times, they congregate and squat on the brown earth, sorting their shimmery-silver catch in the sun; and sometimes, one of them will be seen walking away with a wide-mouthed steel vessel tucked into the hip, lost in rumination. Such moments are captured in images from the riveting photography series titled, ‘Chronicles of the Tides, Migration, Conflict and Climate’ that immediately transport the viewers to the coastal shores. For the show, 16 women from two fishing communities, Nagapattinam in Tamil Nadu and Ganjam in Odisha, have taken the reins and are telling their stories with the help of a camera. The project, spearheaded by photographer Palani Kumar, was formed through the support of Dakshin Foundation and SNEHA, an NGO based in Nagapattinam.

It was in 2022 that Kumar, who is also a staff photographer at People's Archive of Rural India, purchased second-hand DSLRs and handed them over to the selected coterie of women. At first, the women hesitated, unsure of how to handle the strange device. But Kumar was determined. He introduced them to the world of photography by sharing books featuring images made by iconic photojournalists like Sebastião Salgado, who is known for his compelling reportage on manual labour. Kumar also showed the women his own documentary work, and trained them in the field. “We went to the seaside,” he shares. “I taught them about ISO, aperture, light metres, and told them to shoot at eye level.” When it came to picking a subject, however, he encouraged the women to shoot anything that deeply resonated with them.

Of course, not everything went as smoothly as one would hope. The first time 35-year-old A. Mahalakshmi from Nagapattinam, held the camera in her hand, she felt a sense of discomfort. “It took a lot of adjustment,” she recalls in Tamil. “I was very shy. Our dress code was only saris, as the fishing community is very conservative. It placed us in an awkward position while managing our cameras, since lifting our cameras would also lift the material of our saris, and people would gape at us or tease us because of how unkempt we looked.” Then came the naysayers. One village chief wasn’t pleased by the idea of a group of women wandering freely, peering through viewfinders, and making photographs. He stopped them from continuing. Elsewhere, onlookers questioned what the women were doing with the cameras in the first place.

Over a period of three months, however, under the tutelage of Kumar, Mahalakshmi and the other women gained immense courage, measured spontaneity and skill, leading them to take more than 2,500 images capturing the inner lives of the fishing community. “When I look at the photos they’ve taken now, I realise they’re better at this than I am,” Kumar admits. The series, which features a selection of 400 photographs, not only documents the lives of the fishing community, but also highlights the devastating effects of climate change, the flux of migration, and the plight of widows.

“There needs to be a serious space for storytelling in our own voice,” says Kumar, whose mother worked as a fish vendor while he was growing up in Madurai, Tamil Nadu. He vividly remembers her waking up at 3 am, leaving home to sell fish, and rarely taking a break. “I know the tough lives fisherwomen lead and I can easily connect to them.” Kumar, who trained the first tribal community photographer in Tamil Nadu, further emphasises, “The change I want to bring is to give the ‘voiceless’ a voice and a chance to speak. I want to create journalism opportunities for the marginalised and Dalit communities. That’s why I hold such workshops.”

One of his students, Ch. Pratima, a 23-year-old from the fishing community in Ganjam, Odisha, panned her lens towards documenting the debilitating impact of climate change on her community, where the rising ocean level has been steadily swallowing the coastline over the years. One of her poignant images features a borderless doorway framing the frothy waters of the Bay of Bengal. It’s taken from the interior of a damaged and abandoned home in Podampeta in Ganjam district that is no longer habitable due to coastal erosion. Reports state that at least 200 homes have been engulfed in Podampeta, forcing its inhabitants to migrate to other regions. In another photograph, a young girl dressed in a school uniform is seen climbing up a barren, muddy slope. Her original route from school to home had come undone due to the advancing erosion. Pratima also captured other moments in the lives of the fisherfolk, including a striking image featuring a sprawl of lifeless mackerels ready to be auctioned at the Arjipalli fishing harbour.

Whether it’s photographing the fisherfolks painstakingly repairing their trawlers or showing their weathered hands, the images possess a distinct layer of authenticity that only an insider could capture.

Mahalakshmi was in the fifth grade when she began helping her mother sell fish. Today, with a camera, she has captured a day in the life of a fish vendor, enabling us to gain an insight into the harsh lives they lead. She followed a vendor through the village, documenting her journey as she walked from one customer to the next, precariously balancing several kilos of fish on her head. There are also photographs of stillness and solitude: quiet, domestic spaces that the vendor inhabits as a widow. Although the vendor is absent in these interior shots, her loneliness and vulnerability are conveyed through objects: a singular, unmade bed and the garlanded frame of a man, possibly her late husband.

Mahalakshmi remembers the advice Kumar shared with her: “While he taught us how to use the camera and take photos of subjects with good lighting and background, he also emphasised that we should go beyond capturing just natural surroundings. He encouraged us to tell the stories of our people,” she says. 

Women play a significant and irreplaceable role in the fishing industry, yet rarely are their daily lives documented. They catch, sell and dry the fish; later they cook it for their families. This series celebrates women and their unsung labour, shares Kumar, who is now seeking opportunities to conduct more workshops and exhibitions. He adds, “This work is incredibly important and I’m keen to share their photos with the world.” Mahalakshmi concludes, “Our problems will only be visible if we tell them. We have to show our joys and sorrows.”

A. Mahalakshmi and Palani Kumar will be part of the panel discussion, ‘Platforming Grassroots: How Community Led Initiatives are Changing our Landscape’ at the India Art Fair on 8th February.

Harini Ravi Kumar translated A. Mahalakshmi’s interview from Tamil to English.