CORPUS CHRISTI, Sevilla, Spain 2011

Life is an accumulation of stories beginning at the same time as they finish and they finish at the same time as they begin it...

It is an invisible web of squares with an impossible but true dream where they are intermingled in.

Jaen, Andalucia, Spain 2011

AnGeLs CaN MakE YoU FLy EvEn WitHouT WiNGs.

Cordoba, Spain, 2011

MA

LA

GA

-Spain!

“Something worse than being born poor India, is born a woman,” states Sampat Pal Devi, a 50 year old woman from one of the lowest castes of Indian society.

In India, to even bear a girl is still perceived as a bad thing: “she will be one more mouth to feed, she will leave the house to live in her mother-in-law’s house, and who will need to pay for her wedding preparations.” The consequences are dramatic: 80% of women over 25 years old are illiterate, and 65% have married before their 18^th year birthday. Around 5000 married women are assassinated annually because they have an insufficient dowry. Also, there are a large amount of women who are randomly expelled from their houses, often without reason.

Sampat Pal Devi took these alarming statistics and her personal experience and developed a radical response that is changing women’s role in India for the better. In 2006 started a rebellion in the northern Uttar Pradesh region of Indian against the “destiny” of Indian woman. She formed Gulabi Gang, or Pink Gang, a group of radical women adorning pink saris with passion who are demanding respect for their rights and who strike, scream and hit (if they need to) because as a united front, they believe they can force great change in Indian society. And they are.

These women are literally fighting for their lives while simultaneously fortifying them. Gulabi Gang is a community-based response towards transformative justice. Firstly, the men are confronted and spoken to about their wrong-doings with the victim is offered support. If their reaction is nothing short of apologetic and enthusiastic towards active transformation, a public shaming and beating take place.

Although numerous laws in favor of women exist, very few are abided by. The radical women of Gulabi Gang do not hesitate to fight for their belief regardless of the consequences. Because of this determination, they have made great strides by putting violent husbands in jail, ensuring that the region’s imprisoned women are fed and treated humanely, and expanding public awareness of police corruption and patriarchal abuse.

Sampat Par Devi tests the concept of freedom of expression through her leadership of a sisterhood of radicalized former-servants who are now committed to serving justice and autonomy.

Abusers create isolation in order to maintain control, but the Gulabi Gang has grown to over 20,000 women band together with the common goal of liberation for all women. The Gulabi Gang understands that the collective is only as strong as the individuals that make it up. In order to build strong communities, women are encouraged and supported to fulfill their full potential as independent individuals with a shared vision.

I believe that as outsiders, we don’t have the right to harshly judge the actions of others, specifically those of women in the 2/3rds world (a term I like to use as a more accurate global socioeconomic distinction). These women know intimately their own oppression and hence, can and must define what form their liberation is taking. However, it is crucial for us to listen to their stories, document their struggle as an act of solidarity, learn from their successes, and be inspired by their advances. The women of the Gulabi Gang hold rage that is dignified, and that is the power that I wish to express through my photojournalism, should I be blessed with the granting of this award.

Another organization of immense interest to me is the Vicente Ferrer Foundation, a non-governmental development organization committed to the process of transforming the poorest and most needy areas of Andhra Pradesh in southeast India. Their approach to fighting injustice is similarly based on a philosophy of action. Its team works from both Spain and India to improve the living conditions of some of the most discriminated communities within the Hindu caste system: the Dalits or untouchables, the tribal groups and the backward castes.

The focus of my work would be on the Foundation’s women's development program which started in 1982 to gain recognition for women in all realms of society recognized by ensuring women access to vocational and professional training, creating employment opportunities to reduce their dependence on men, and ending mistreatment, sexual harassment and abuse.

The reality in India, as with most of the world, is one of strong gender oppression. The Foundation is working towards educating women through self-activity to be active agents of personal and social change. By providing skill trainings and opportunities for independence, women can flourish out of the cracks of a heavily stratified society of gender and caste-based violence. I have witness the effects of such empowerment during my work teaching photography to indigenous women in Costa Rica who fell in the love with their ability to create captivating images, and consequently, felt their sense of self-worth and agency enhance.

I feel that we are constantly bombarded with negative imagery adapted to manipulate the observer with empathy, but in my work I choose to focus on the brilliantly bold and beautiful, rather than the heart wrenchingly sad and negative. As fighting women we must define what we stand for not just what we are against.

From my perspective, the way to challenge systems of violent control is to outgrow rather than overthrow. This process entails, amongst other things, a tremendous thrust of education and communication among all peoples. I hold two complimentary degrees in Photography and Science of Communication. While learning from these forward-thinking and strong-acting women, I hope to communicate their struggles as empowering and effective approaches towards positive transformation. The impact of imagery can increase cultural and political awareness, display the strength of those working on principles of respect and cooperation, and ignite ideas to push forth in action. Photojournalism is a profound tool of social change and can be used as a weapon against those who seek to silence women, deny them of their rights, and torture, or even end, their existence.

Both Sampat Pal Devi’s Gulabi Gang and The Vicente Ferrer Foundation are following their common mission of increasing awareness of inhumanity and injustice and taking action to change it. With one organization in the North and the other in the South, I wish to spend some months in India between these two locations photo journaling the personal and collective changes that result from their influence over the social conditions that existing. My greatest dream would be realized if I had the opportunity to show the ability of women in harsh struggle to persevere with strength and determination through the medium that is my greatest passion, photography. By engaging in such a project, I hope that I would be able to move people towards the notion that a more just, sacred, and sustainable world is possible, and it is up to us, individually and collectively, to take action to make it real.