Chiiz Volume 7 :Fashion Photography
When people stand in front of the mirror to have a good long look at themselves, they always hope to see a better reflection of themselves than what they have seen previously and with all this, they have grown conscious of how they appear and how comfortable they are with what they wear.Not only their clothes, but also their comfort level, express the sense of style and their conformity to the outer world.In this issue, what we have focussed on might not be the mainstream fashion and people might not get the hype that revolves around the fashion world but what we have here is something that is responsible for all that we have achieved so far in this industry. Be it natural beauty by Lynn Theisen, backstage brilliance by Ishaan Nair, or the street fashion by Rohit Arora which is now gaining popularity among the more prominent photographers.The interview with John Rawson is an eye opener. He is has been through it all andhis experiences form a great lesson for all of us. The series of Roshini Kumar with Suhail Nayyar is also a masterpiece in itself which is a true symbol of comfortable fashion statements. Rod Klein and Jorge Gonzalez’s underwater fashion photographs present an altogether different approach to see things.
When people stand in front of the mirror to have a good long look at themselves, they always hope to see a better reflection of themselves than what they have seen previously and with all this, they have grown conscious of how they appear and how comfortable they are with what they wear.Not only their clothes, but also their comfort level, express the sense of style and their conformity to the outer world.In this issue, what we have focussed on might not be the mainstream fashion and people might not get the hype that revolves around the fashion world but what we have here is something that is responsible for all that we have achieved so far in this industry. Be it natural beauty by Lynn Theisen, backstage brilliance by Ishaan Nair, or the street fashion by Rohit Arora which is now gaining popularity among the more prominent photographers.The interview with John Rawson is an eye opener. He is has been through it all andhis experiences form a great lesson for all of us. The series of Roshini Kumar with Suhail Nayyar is also a masterpiece in itself which is a true symbol of comfortable fashion statements. Rod Klein and Jorge Gonzalez’s underwater fashion photographs present an altogether different approach to see things.
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DURGA<br />
Gender Bias and Discrimination Against Widows in India<br />
Durga Series-1<br />
Canon EOS 1000D 62mm F/20 1/250s ISO1600<br />
|| Ya Devi sarva bhuteshu, Shakti rupena sansthita ||<br />
The Omnipresent Goddess is the embodiment of Power.<br />
Sharmishtha Dutta<br />
Photographer<br />
From times immemorial, Indians<br />
have celebrated Goddess Durga as the<br />
embodiment of Stree Shakti (woman<br />
power). According to Hindu Mythology,<br />
when the celestial gods or devas could<br />
not control the menace of the demons or<br />
asuras, they convened with the powerful<br />
trinity of gods, Brahma, Vishnu & Mahesh.<br />
Thus, did Durga the invincible, come into<br />
being. With eyes that drained the strength<br />
of the demons, her ten hands brandishing<br />
ten different weapons, she slaughtered the<br />
infamous Mahishasur demon and restored<br />
balance to the world. This is how she’s<br />
celebrated even today, in India and all over<br />
the world.<br />
But a woman, born of man! That is certainly a man’s<br />
perspective! Indians, the world over, have been celebrating<br />
Goddess Durga as the embodiment of ‘Stree Shakti’. It<br />
becomes crucial to see how a woman in the present world,<br />
finds her place in an increasingly patriarchal society of<br />
India. It is a place where her voice is deliberately muffled<br />
and she has to fight for an equal status - social, economic<br />
& even sexual– which the man so takes for granted.<br />
Perhaps, the biggest case of social injustice till day is<br />
one that is faced by widows. Their plight portrays a fine<br />
picture of neglect and social irresponsibility. Despite our<br />
motherland making exponential progress, the matriarch<br />
is target to stigma, superstitions and social dogma.<br />
Widowhood is a curse, still, in our country. She is forced<br />
to give up all worldly pleasures, wear only white and<br />
have her hair cut off. Little do we know of her abject<br />
conditions and a life of endless hardships; not to mention<br />
humiliation?<br />
The Government of India has taken steps to provide them<br />
a nominal pension. Several NGOs have set up shelters,<br />
providing them with a respectable life in their sunset<br />
years.<br />
But not much has changed over the years in terms of their<br />
social acceptability. It must be strange for a society, such<br />
as ours, that idolizes Ma Durga and yet turns a blind eye<br />
to a million destitute mothers and wives, treating them<br />
with so much indifference and hostility. It makes us all<br />
look a tad hypocritical, don’t you think? A society that<br />
propagates respect for women only in relation to her<br />
status with a man!<br />
It is time we realized that there resides a DURGA in every<br />
woman, whether she is the well-educated lady from the<br />
upper echelons of society, the quintessential middle class<br />
working-woman, the village simpleton or the old and<br />
abandoned widow in Vrindavan.<br />
60 Vol 7
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