Hasselblad Award-winning photographer Dayanita Singh has collaborated with PARI to institute the Dayanita Singh-PARI Documentary Photography Award
The first Dayanita Singh-PARI Documentary Photography Award of Rs. 2 lakhs goes to M. Palani Kumar of the People’s Archive of Rural India.
The idea for the prize comes out of Dayanita winning the 2022 Hasselblad Award – considered the most prestigious photography prize in the world. Dayanita declared herself most impressed with the intent, content, spirit and documentary brilliance of young Palani Kumar’s self-schooled photography.
She also chose to make this prize a collaborative venture with the People’s Archive of Rural India because she sees PARI as being one of the last bastions of documentary photography – and one that focuses on the lives and livelihoods of the marginalised.
Palani Kumar is PARI’s first full-time photographer (we have worked with about 600, shooting for us as contributors). His work, prominently featured in PARI, is entirely focused on those we consider the least – including sanitation workers, seaweed harvesters, agricultural labourers, and more. Few in the field can match his combination of skill in the craft and a strong social conscience, driven by empathy.
Rani is among the many
women who labour and sweat in 25,000 acres of salt pans in Thoothukudi district
of southern Tamil Nadu for poor wages.
From: The Rani of Thoothukudi’s salt pans
Govindamma, in her 70s, is picking prawns and collecting them in a basket, held in her mouth, in the Buckingham Canal. She works despite her bruises and failing eyesight to support her family.
From: Govindamma: ‘I have been in water all my life’
A. Mariyayi is one among the many women working in the korai fields on the banks of the Cauvery in Tamil Nadu's Karur district. The work on the field is hard, pays little, and takes a toll on their health.
From: 'These korai fields are my second home'
A salt pan worker in Tamil Nadu’s Thoothukudi district labouring under a blazing sun to harvest the most common kitchen staple, weathering poor working conditions.
From: The Rani of Thoothukudi’s salt pans
P. Magarajan is one of the few kombu artistes in Tamil Nadu. The art of playing this elephant-trunk-shaped wind-instrument has languished across the state, leaving artists out of work and money.
From: Quiet blows the kombu in Madurai
Sanitation workers in Chennai walked long distances to work,
sweeping and cleaning the city without any protective gear, or a day off
during the Covid-19 lockdown.
From: Sanitation workers – the wages of
ingratitude
Rita
akka
, a physically challenged sanitation worker
, clears garbage in Chennai's Kotturpuram locality in the mornings. But her evenings are spent feeding and talking to her canine companions.
From: Rita akka's life is going to the dogs (and cats)
D. Muthuraja with his son, Vishanth Raja. Muthuraja and his wife, M. Chitra, face life with courage and hope, despite poverty, poor health and disability.
From: Chitra and Muthuraja: an untold love story
R. Ezhilarasan, an artist, has brought light and laughter to the lives of countless children in Tamil Nadu through art, craft, theatre and songs.
From: Ezhil anna, he made me from clay
Palani's mother,
Thirumaayi,
in a rare happy moment.
From: Life of my mother – in the light of a lamppost
