An unusual angle captured

Women Changing India’, a photo-exhibition on the modern women in our country today, is being held at Karnataka Chitrakala Parishat. The work of six acclaimed Magnum photographers — Olivia Arthur, Martine Franck, Raghu Rai, Alessandra Sanguinetti, Alex Webb and Patrick Zachmannh — are being featured.

The highlight of the exhibition is Raghu Rai’s collection of 12 portraits called ‘The Heart of India: Women Icons’. From a Dalit political leader, Sivakami to rights’ activist Aruna Roy; from Biocon’s Kiran Mazumdar Shaw to Chanda Kocchar, the managing director of ICICI Bank, the list goes on. Raghu manages to capture some of these women in their natural environment, showing them as carefree and independent beings. The portrait of Anjolie Ela Menon, an artist, shows her with a paintbrush in her hand and wonder in her eye.

Such nuances are given attention to, making it an extraordinary collection.“It was nice to actually see what some of these women look like, since I had only heard of many of their names till now. There’s a personal touch to them, which implies that there really is a story to be told,” says Parvathi, who visited the exhibition.

Among the other collections, the one that stands out is ‘Empowerment at the grassroots’, with photographs of what really goes on in women panchayats, taken by Patrick Zachmannh. ‘Behind the scenes: Women in the Mumbai film industry’ by Alessandra Sanguinetti, which has photographs of Farah Khan, Aamir Khan with his wife, Kiran Rao, alongside those of villagers attempting to shoot a film are also unique. There is also ‘Imagining a different future: Generation Now’ clicked by Olivia Arthur featuring modern women as lawyers and RJs.

The other collection is ‘Women Driving Change’ by Alex Webb, portraying women drivers, women pilots and petrol bunk workers. The last one by Martine Franck is ‘Banking on Ourselves’, which looks at micro-credit initiatives and women’s Self-Help Groups (SHGs).

“It’s nice to see what women are doing in our country. Some of these photographs are stunning. What I like most about it is that it covers all stratas of society — from the rich to the poor,” says Gangadhar, a visitor. The exhibition will be on at Chitrakala Parishat till October 20, from 10.30 am to
7.30 pm.