Walking Into The Soul of a Slum

Walking Into The Soul of a Slum, originally uploaded by firoze shakir photographerno1.

Darkness is a language only the blind can read, but sometimes it is badly misread by the wide eyed too..this is the path that connects despair to hope.. light at the end of a fucked tunnel.

Of late I have been terribly down and disturbed with the vagaries of my personal life so I stopped walking through the slums since a week.

Now I walk the outer road to my workspace.. I carry my camera , the camera on my person is like embedded poetry wings they keep me off the ground most of the time.

Kids on the outer road too want their pictures they keep following me like the Piped Piper of Bandra Bazar Road.


Things that have to be shot will be shot , there are things that I see I would like to shoot I deliberately dont shoot them..I know they will be there the next time too, I defy pictorial destiny..and if you live in a urban jungle shoot pain there is no solace of a mountain or a lazy stream or a brook..

But yes you keep your landscapes your wildlife I am completely at ease shooting the dregs of society.I shoot the same thing over and over again yes some pictures are like favorite tunes they never fade away.



Last evening near the Parsi Fire temple Tata Agiary , I met Informer Bhai the crippled beggar of my New Don story, I told him he should be careful while crossing the road but he gave me a smile .,.that said fuck I am already dead when I crossed the road of the womb to be crushed by life forever.

Next to him sat another beggar I dont like to shoot with a diseased leg that has elephantiasis , he kept trying to placate my soul to take a shot I refused.

To shoot pictures you need a sane frame of mind , but sometimes insanity of a seconds thought can get you good pictures its like writing poems on an empty stomach.. and to understand my inner struggle you would have to read New Grub Street by George Gissing .. I read many tears back and he distempered my soul s poetry for life.

Some of the books you read make you relive every chapter of your life..so the camera is an extension of my psyche , it is a powerful tool,,, it poetizes moments on the street , there are Facebook friends , kids actually that chat and want to emulate my style they say..and I repeatedly tell them be original be yourself..what I shoot is nothing special but it is special because it makes me see the depth of misery of another mans life..

But than photography for some is a shortcut to money glory and fame , I am a beggar with a camera I beg and shoot ..I dont begrudge the fashion guy or the media guy .. but yes I am totally disgusted with the salon type or the camera club type , who have destroyed the soul of a photographer, pretty pictures are not the real story of life..there is a bitter path too they ignore, a few years back if you asked them who is a blogger they would be scratching their heads clueless.

Photography at club level is shamelessly posting your pictures to win acclaim awards and nothing but flatulent conceit.. you have the fucking balls come and teach photography to the kids in the slum .. show them a life away from their own.

But than it is always Blah Blah..I was a camera club member I may have had a short shelf life but I have moved away a million light years from their gissa pita attitude towrds photography , that is why they wont ever call me to speak on a dais..the only thing that hurts is a dysfunctional tragedy even as a photographer..

I will stop now .. this is a blog with no holds barred .. so now you know why I stopped walking through the slums ..