Winner of the 2008 photo contest

Click here to view larger version of winning photograph

Photograph description: Unemployment is also a severe problem in rural India. Here, an old man of rural Rajasthan creates some clay pots in his own cottage. Finally, he will sale his product directly to the market through a self help group. Government is now encouraging the rural people to form a self help group or cooperative society to become self sufficient

Sandipan Majumdar, 43 years old, is a state government employee in Koldata, India. Photography is his passion.

Here is his story in his own words:

It all started when I was 17 and I went for a trek into the Himalayas with my school friends. Some of them were carrying SLR cameras and even though I didn’t have one, I was fascinated with the results and was soon longing to buy one of my own the moment I could muster enough money. But I had to wait for quite some time because in those days, pocket money was very limited and cameras were very expensive, and photography was generally regarded as an expensive hobby. Finally, I purchased a SLR camera after joining my service.

During my travels, I like to interact with the local people and always want to capture their mood, emotion, and culture. People are my favorite subject.

I am an auditor by profession and my work takes me to many different places to audit co-operative societies and thrift and credit groups, especially in the rural countryside. The cooperative movement in my country is one of the most dynamic sectors in our villages and my job gives me the opportunity to interact with many such entrepreneurs who are struggling to carve a niche for their livelihood in this day and age of rapid globalization.

Rural pottery is as old as India herself and pieces created in non-descript and largely unknown locations often find themselves in high-end urban boutiques across our major cities and, indeed, in cities across the world. Here, I took this photograph in a rural area of the state of Rajasthan, a state which has been a major travel destination for tourists seeking to get a flavor of our traditional rural ethos. In this village named Khuri, most of the households are engaged in pottery making as their sole means of livelihood. I was surprised to find that through government initiatives, local potters have formed formal and info rmal cooperative societies to undertake collective marketing and get better deals for their wares. Staying with these people for a few days made me realize that we photographers often tend to get engrossed in our artistic zeal and miss the “human” side of the story, a story about a group of illiterate men and women who have dared to dream of self help as a means of raising their families and preserving a dying art.