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Photographic memories

Photo: K. Ananthan

Lens view Barbara Bechtloff with her photographs

“It is a personal story,” smiles fashion photographer Barbara Bechtloff about her photo documents of the Vagri community — known as the narikuravar in Tamil Nadu. As a 19-year-old, when Chennai-born Barbara visited Mahabalipuram, she met Manohar, a gypsy boy. “He had his name tattooed on his arm, was extremely friendly, took us around to tourist places near the temple and kept waving from the bus stand till he lost sight of us,” she recalls.

Five years later, Barbara returned to Chennai with a photograph of Manohar, located him and they became friends.

Re-visiting Chennai

It is this friendship that brought her back to Chennai again and that is when the idea to photo document the Vagri community was born. “I went back to Germany, read about the doctorate studies done on the community, their culture and came back in 1995 for the project,” she says as she takes you through the black and white series of photographs. First is the one that captures the festive mood, a ritual that brings the community together for an offering of goats to the goddess. “They put up tents and silver idol of the goddess is kept inside. They sing and dance and the men are believed to be possessed by the goddess. They wear seven skirts, shake their hair and dance away merrily,” she narrates. During the six-week stint for the project, Barbara also accompanied them to the forest during their hunting expeditions. She picked up their language, which she says has a Hindi dialect, and also got a taste of their cuisine. “We communicate through signs and broken English and Tamil. They eat spicy food, meat, fish and cats!” Photographs of men returning home after a bath in a well, playing children, their small huts, all in black and white take you back in time.

Their way of life involves moving about the streets with children seeking alms and selling necklaces, beads and bangles. They also collect garbage, segregate and sell them and make money.

“They are affectionate, self-confident, have a strong support of the community, which gives them the strength to move on in life,” she says and shows off her gift, a green bead bracelet. “I have been wearing this for one year. They are good at making necklaces, henna stamps and carry a unique gypsy bag, in which you can put a lot of things in different ways. And, a transparent front side to house photographs of their stars,” Barbara adds, who has also done a series on Bharatanatyam and Shiva worship in Tamil Nadu.

When Barbara returned in 2006, many things had changed. Manohar abandoned by the community (because he married a widow), lived on the streets with his wife Latha and their three children. “I collected some money for them and put the children in a school,” says the photographer who set out to document the changes in a colour series — the bathing ritual of the children near the temple tank, the ritual of tonsuring the head and offering a cock to the Goddess to help give up a drinking habit, selling beads and more. Black and white or colours, emotions remain the same in her photographs. “Life is changing so rapidly and I hope this community keeps their culture intact,” Barbara says.

What about the friendship? “We are in touch. Manohar carries a mobile with him,” she smiles.

Goethe-Zentrum, Coimbatore organised an exhibition of her photographs taken during both of her visits to Mahabalipuram, from July 4 to 6.

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