<p>In this digital age of photographic glut, photo fatigue is somewhat inevitable. Some experts rue this plentitude of photography. American writer Chris Wiley, in one of his write-ups ‘Depth of Focus’ in Frieze magazine, says, “Ironically, the moment of greatest photographic plentitude has pushed photography to the point of exhaustion.” </p>.<p>Contrary to today’s Insta age, once upon a time, there was neither a surfeit of photographs nor advanced technology to enhance mundane pictures shot by common people. Yet, some classic photographs clicked during the 70s and 80s, mirroring the romanticism and nostalgia of bucolic life, have withstood the test of time. These were captured by the rural folk of Tilonia, a small desert hamlet in Rajasthan’s Ajmer district.</p>.<p class="bodytext">About 80 such photographs under the title ‘Barefoot Photography’, clicked by both men and women, who held a camera for the first time in their lives, were on display in Jaipur recently. </p>.<p class="bodytext">The exhibition titled ‘Footprints of Change’ captures the essence of grassroots initiatives and community-led development undertaken by Barefoot College in Tilonia and offers a glimpse into its transformative work. </p>.<p class="bodytext">Simple yet powerful, each of these images has a story to tell. Many of these pictures depict how water is the most precious commodity in the region and how survival, especially for women, revolves around this elixir of life. Some images depict the simple joys of village life, while others showcase how rural women, despite the prevalent purdah system, collectively protested the rape culture and caste taboos then too. </p>.<p class="bodytext">Mohanlal is a class V pass-out and a master photographer. A product of the Barefoot College, his understanding of light and shadow to play off the angles and curves of his subjects in a photograph is perfect. He says since his mother was a cook at the college, he used to visit the place and was handed a camera one day and asked to chronicle village life. “Although I was trained a bit, I was mostly guided by my instincts. Back then, I could just afford to click only two photographs of anything in the hope that at least one would be okay. Not like today when one can click umpteen pictures. We had a black and white photographic lab, but the films could be developed only in Ajmer town. All these pictures were on negatives and reels. We have now digitised all the prints.” </p>.<p class="bodytext">The Barefoot College in Tilonia in Ajmer district, at a distance of around 96 km from the state capital, is a 53-year-old community-based grassroots organisation that aims to make the most marginalised communities sustainable and self-sufficient.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The college is called barefoot because millions of poor who pass on their knowledge learnt from their forefathers still live and work barefoot. Founded by Bunker Roy in 1972, it works on the Gandhian principle of reaching the last man in the line. The history of Barefoot College is also deeply intertwined with movements that have shaped rural development in India.</p>.<p class="bodytext">A fully solar-powered institute, it has architects, engineers, solar engineers, and blacksmiths who are illiterate yet possess the know-how to use technology, but only in a sustainable way. In 1972, rural men and women from many villages around Tilonia were given simple cameras and asked to document themselves. During the last 50 years, the college has thus been able to develop its own brand of photography. The exhibition had travelled to London in 2005 and Hanover in Germany earlier with original copies.</p>.<p class="bodytext">A photographer from Magnum, a collective of renowned photographers, who saw these photographs when they were being printed, said, “If these were taken by illiterate photographers, I should leave my cameras aside and never touch them.” </p>.<p class="bodytext">Over the years, an archive of more than 120,000 pictures in black and white, colour negatives and slides has been compiled. This special collection of simple and cogent photography was discovered nine years ago by chance. The collection was in a terrible condition and had to be slowly and painfully restored in Italy, a process that took almost three years. </p>.<p class="bodytext">Sowmya Kidambi, director of Barefoot College, says these images reflect the college’s spirit of empowering communities through specific skills rather than any formal education.</p>
<p>In this digital age of photographic glut, photo fatigue is somewhat inevitable. Some experts rue this plentitude of photography. American writer Chris Wiley, in one of his write-ups ‘Depth of Focus’ in Frieze magazine, says, “Ironically, the moment of greatest photographic plentitude has pushed photography to the point of exhaustion.” </p>.<p>Contrary to today’s Insta age, once upon a time, there was neither a surfeit of photographs nor advanced technology to enhance mundane pictures shot by common people. Yet, some classic photographs clicked during the 70s and 80s, mirroring the romanticism and nostalgia of bucolic life, have withstood the test of time. These were captured by the rural folk of Tilonia, a small desert hamlet in Rajasthan’s Ajmer district.</p>.<p class="bodytext">About 80 such photographs under the title ‘Barefoot Photography’, clicked by both men and women, who held a camera for the first time in their lives, were on display in Jaipur recently. </p>.<p class="bodytext">The exhibition titled ‘Footprints of Change’ captures the essence of grassroots initiatives and community-led development undertaken by Barefoot College in Tilonia and offers a glimpse into its transformative work. </p>.<p class="bodytext">Simple yet powerful, each of these images has a story to tell. Many of these pictures depict how water is the most precious commodity in the region and how survival, especially for women, revolves around this elixir of life. Some images depict the simple joys of village life, while others showcase how rural women, despite the prevalent purdah system, collectively protested the rape culture and caste taboos then too. </p>.<p class="bodytext">Mohanlal is a class V pass-out and a master photographer. A product of the Barefoot College, his understanding of light and shadow to play off the angles and curves of his subjects in a photograph is perfect. He says since his mother was a cook at the college, he used to visit the place and was handed a camera one day and asked to chronicle village life. “Although I was trained a bit, I was mostly guided by my instincts. Back then, I could just afford to click only two photographs of anything in the hope that at least one would be okay. Not like today when one can click umpteen pictures. We had a black and white photographic lab, but the films could be developed only in Ajmer town. All these pictures were on negatives and reels. We have now digitised all the prints.” </p>.<p class="bodytext">The Barefoot College in Tilonia in Ajmer district, at a distance of around 96 km from the state capital, is a 53-year-old community-based grassroots organisation that aims to make the most marginalised communities sustainable and self-sufficient.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The college is called barefoot because millions of poor who pass on their knowledge learnt from their forefathers still live and work barefoot. Founded by Bunker Roy in 1972, it works on the Gandhian principle of reaching the last man in the line. The history of Barefoot College is also deeply intertwined with movements that have shaped rural development in India.</p>.<p class="bodytext">A fully solar-powered institute, it has architects, engineers, solar engineers, and blacksmiths who are illiterate yet possess the know-how to use technology, but only in a sustainable way. In 1972, rural men and women from many villages around Tilonia were given simple cameras and asked to document themselves. During the last 50 years, the college has thus been able to develop its own brand of photography. The exhibition had travelled to London in 2005 and Hanover in Germany earlier with original copies.</p>.<p class="bodytext">A photographer from Magnum, a collective of renowned photographers, who saw these photographs when they were being printed, said, “If these were taken by illiterate photographers, I should leave my cameras aside and never touch them.” </p>.<p class="bodytext">Over the years, an archive of more than 120,000 pictures in black and white, colour negatives and slides has been compiled. This special collection of simple and cogent photography was discovered nine years ago by chance. The collection was in a terrible condition and had to be slowly and painfully restored in Italy, a process that took almost three years. </p>.<p class="bodytext">Sowmya Kidambi, director of Barefoot College, says these images reflect the college’s spirit of empowering communities through specific skills rather than any formal education.</p>