A sail through the lives of fisherfolk, courtesy photo expo

The exhibition will be held at the Eco Park in Chetpet between December 23 and 25. Talking to DT Next, Radhika Ganesh, founder of the collective, said that the spark for the exhibition came from the stereotypical imaging of the fisherfolk community, from Ennore to Danushkodi.

“The fact is that there is a vast difference even between the community in Nagapattinam and Thanjavur, despite their proximity. However, we assume that they all dress in a way, look a particular way and speak in a particular way,” she said. The exhibition found support from the Fisheries Department as well.

The Kadalaadu Kaadal has a long line up of entertainment events like puppetry, talk, parai aatam, silambam and martial arts, etc. as part of the programme that is going to initiate advocacy later. “The core of the programme are 40 photographs shot by Somasundaram and Abha Muralidharan, youngsters part of the collective. These photographs will capture the various aspects of their livelihood, and present to the foreunknown facts about their lives and identity.”

She added that the beauty of the fisherfolk is that their occupation is their identity. “They could be Muslims, Christians and Hindus, even Irulas. But their main identity is meenavar,” she said. Among the many revelations are the various types of boats – moving beyond the popular assumption of catamaran and motor boats. “There are about 50 types of boats,” she pointed out. And, the fact that there is a lot of upward mobility in the community, with some of them being highly educated. “The idea behind the exhibition therefore is to encourage a better understanding of this community,” she said.

The photo exhibition would also document the recent havoc caused by Gaja cyclone on the lives of the people.The exhibition will be inaugurated by Fisheries Minister D Jayakumar.