Snapshots of lives devoted to service

We called Jagmati Sangwan in the middle of a very busy day. It was noon and we had organised the shoot on the rooftop of a building. Jagmati had worked all day long; it showed.

Yet, I didn’t want to fix anything because it is the puffiness and lines on her face that talked of all that she had accomplished in her life. I decided, I am going to capture this woman as she is,” recollects Mick Minard, writer and photographer, going back to the month of April 2014.

Both Minard and her partner in project, Dr Shashi Gogate, travelled from US to India for a period of five weeks to meet and document the lives of 15 women leaders.

“When I met Mick for the first time, I said, ‘I want to write a book on women leaders of India when I retire’,” recalls Dr Gogate as Minard acknowledges the incident, smiling.

Many years later, when the medical practitioner retired, she called up Minard and the project ‘The Poetry of Purpose: A Portrait of Women Leaders of India’ took birth.
Minard says the idea of having a photography exhibition based on the book was
an attempt to make the issue universal.

“There is so much you can tell to a diverse audience through photographs. But globally, the book can make its way! Infact, I also want to do a version of the book for children, so that they can relate to these leaders.”

A look at the photographs and a viewer might not be too impressed with the portraits until the description below them is taken into consideration. Looking at her photograph during the opening of the exhibition, Jagmati Sangwan said, “I knew that they were doing relevant work. But I did not imagine that it would come out to be
so brilliant.”

Sangwan, the general secretary of All India Democratic Women’s Association, is a former volleyball player. In case her face in the photograph looks familiar trace your memories back to 2012 where she was a part of Aamir Khan’s show Satyamev Jayate.

Though her work and that of others, like social activist Kamla Bhasin, Nisha Chauhan and filmmaker Madhureeta Anand is already known to a few, there are portraits of others who have worked silently all their lives.

“From the hundreds of names we received through mails, we shortlisted 15 by
focusing on mind, body and soul of each one of them. These parameters were decided because it is only when all these three are in sync that one realises the purpose of
being and reflects on life,” explains Minard.

The photographer says that the criteria depended on whether their lives were inspiring and creating social change but also kept into consideration that their story isn’t widely known. “Anar Patel was the first whom we photographed. Unknowing that soon her mother Anandiben Patel would raise to become Gujarat’s Chief Minister,” she is quick to remark.

It is a bit difficult to imagine the designation ‘Communications Manager’ written below the image of a rural Rajasthani woman with the ubiquitous pallu on her head. It is the portrait of Meena Bhati which reminds a viewer that even if an Indian woman is far from modernity, she is capable of demanding the same respect as any other respectable leader worldwide.

Both Minard and Dr Gogate had a keen eye on the source of inspiration of each of these women leaders who are devoted to the service of humanity. Minard confesses, “I rarely thought myself to be a photographer or journalist while photographing them. I just considered myself as a woman who believes in loving and working for others.”  The photography exhibition at the Open Palm Court Gallery, India Habitat Centre ends today.