‘One photo, please.’ I kept hearing their voices all the time. The children asking me to take a photo of them. ‘One photo, please.’
‘Thank you.’ And I kept thinking of all the times I was thanked for taking a photo of a child, a man or a woman. ‘Thank you, thank you.’
Why were they so keen to have their photo taken? Why did they feel compelled to thank me when all I did was press the shutter release button?
Andhra Pradesh was a photographer’s dream for an editorial photographer wanting to document the colour and beauty of its people. They came begging for photos and were so thankful when their request was met. Yet they wanted nothing in return. I would show them the image I shot on my camera’s LED but most would only take a quick look and appear disinterested and yet they were happy that their image had been recorded on a foreigner’s camera.
On one of my Facebook posts, my sister-in-law, Jo Voola lamented that it was a pity that those I photographed would never see the images I took. I thought about that comment over and over on the flight from Delhi to Chennai. I wanted to give something back to those beautiful people.
And then it dawned on me.
I had a full day in Chennai before returning to Adelaide and surely there would be one hour photo processing stores. Furthermore, Ravi and Minny were coming from Gudur to bid us farewell. It was all so easy. I could process the images and send them back with Ravi and Minny. They would know all of the faces I captured in Gudur and cousin Joshua would know all of the men and children I captured in the leper colony.
While the others did their last minute shopping in Chennai, I stayed in the hotel and reviewed hundreds of images and prepared them for printing. In the afternoon, Usha brought me to a photo store and within an hour I had two copies of many of the portraits I had taken. The next day I gave them to Ravi who said he would distribute them accordingly.
Ravi explained to me that the people I photographed were thrilled that a foreigner would find them interesting enough to photograph and that they were honoured knowing that people in Australia would view a photo of themselves.
I now like to think how honoured I feel that in a home in Gudur or in the leper colony a portrait I took now occupies some limited wall or mantle space.