When street kids smile through the lens

India
When street kids smile through the lens
By IANS, Feb 15, 2007 - 7:25:19 PM

New Delhi, Feb 15 - The first word that most would probably associate with street kids is poverty, sadness or tears. But an exhibition here shows them in a different way with basic element of life - smiling faces, toothy and toothless grins, waving wildly, immersed in oneself or doing a gimmick.

The exhibition titled 'Children of the world', being held in the city, has 40 photographs of street children from nine countries, including India. It is not the usual kind of exhibition where you step around to look at the portraits on the walls.

'I felt that the kids would suffocate in a close walled room,' said Flore Lamoureux, while pointing at the photographs of street children on hanging illuminated boxes in the serenity of a garden.

'I am from France but have been living in India for more than a year and have travelled across the entire country with my husband,' she said.

'I think it's very unfair to children to portray them as sad beings. They are very positive, full of hope and energy and that's what I am trying to portray through my photographs.'

China, Kyrgyzstan, the Philippines, Guatemala, Pakistan, Myanmar, Ethiopia and Benin, besides India, are the countries where Lamoureux has travelled and taken her photographs. But India, as she says, remains one of her favourites.

So while you can see a scene of few kids laughing and weaving a basket in Assam, there is another of a Sikh child sitting in deep thought in Amritsar. She has also captured two innocent faces at a railway station in New Delhi, one wearing a pair of sunglasses and grinning while another one shying away from the lens.

'These photographs have been taken over a period of 10 years when I used to travel across different countries,' Lamoureux says. So while you have one kid from western China looking at you while collecting cotton, there is another giggling kid from Myanmar with Tanaka powder smeared on his face to protect himself from the harsh summer heat.

Pointing at one photograph with a child from Ethiopia, she says that it was one of the most difficult experiences as the child was not comfortable with her unlike in India where people are generally more welcoming.

The exhibition will be on till Feb 21.

All rights reserved by RxPG Medical Solutions Private Limited ( www.rxpgnews.com )