Documenting the moods of humanity and life

An independent humanitarian photographer based in Chennai, Sindhuja Parthasarathy has been travelling across the country creating compelling visual narratives of human rights violation to influence people and organisations for change. The core of her work explores gender equity, indigenous human rights issues and environmental sustainability. She also keenly highlights the complex socio-cultural anthropology elements and their interplay with humanitarianism. In a chat with us, she opens up about her role as a documentary photographer and life lessons she has learned while documenting the images.

Having lived across various cities in India, Sindhuja found a liking towards understanding different cultures. “I always had an inclination to work towards social issues. I started off with working on festivals celebrated across various communities in the country. I captured unique festivals and realised that the stories of many subcultures and marginalised communities remain untold,” she starts the conversation.

A staunch believer of visual storytelling and its enduring power to create change, she naturally transitioned from documenting festivals into working on stories that aren’t told often in media, stories which are more challenging, and voices of people that aren’t heard enough. “I love to do things that society feels a woman shouldn’t do. I am not letting my guard when I am on the field. As the job demands, we prepare ourselves to meet those challenges. The biggest challenge was safety and over the years, I learned how to face tough situations that come my way. It’s really inspiring when you go out and meet people whom you cannot relate to. I get to hear their stories and build some strong relationships,” shares the photographer.

More than any other genre in photography, Sindhuja feels that a humanitarian photographer should invest a lot of time in building a rapport and gaining the trust of his/her subjects.

“The actual shooting takes very less time but gaining people’s trust is more important in this field. We transform from a point of not knowing anything about an issue to a stage where you know so much about it. It’s an inspiring journey — you become strong emotionally, intellectually and build resilience. Every time you hear a story, you will become stronger. The one important thing a photographer should keep in mind is to keep emotions at bay because you cannot be objective when it comes to documenting visual narratives,” she remarks.