In Born into Brothels, photographer Zana Briski goes to the red-light district of Calcutta, India. There, she teaches photography to the children of prostitutes and captures on film what their lives are like. It didn’t seem like there were any artistic activities the children were activity doing such as painting or drawing before Zana arrived. This leads me to assume the children did not have the resources for artistic equipment especially given how their mothers sold their bodies because they needed money to live. This in turn means photography must have been one of the first hobbies they were introduced to.
Teaching the children how to take photos seemed to be very impact to the lives of the students given that they weren’t attending school and mostly helped out their parents do chores around the house. Plus, in the case of the girls, photography appeared to be their one way ticket out of out of prostitution. You could see that they took it very seriously and were proud of their work. Each child had their own style of taking pictures and it was really heartwarming to see these kids enjoy their time doing what they loved with friends despite their circumstances.
Overtime, Zana becomes very attached to the children and tries to get them into boarding school. She does her best but unfortunately she manages to get only a handful of children in school. What’s more is that, out of those children, I believe only two actually continued their studies. What’s impressive is that Avijit was one of the two and it seemed as though he was the least likely to go because, like the other kids, he was dealing with issues at home.
Why do you think their parents were worried enough that they pulled their children out of school? Do you think the school put in enough effort to have them stay?
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