In 2011, a Mumbai-based photojournalist was assigned to make photographs of a brothel in Sangli to accompany a reporter's story for a news magazine. While the photos did not eventually get filed, they are testimony to how a different viewing perspective can help one see a reality, as much as open up the question of urban interiority. These photos enable us to review a sense of space and architecture within dense towns and urban neighbourhoods, where it is the private that becomes public, where the insides of spaces ask for a narrative beyond the normative inside-outside binary used to view cities and its spaces. While the photographer contemplates the ethics of his task at hand, this set of photographs also questions the systems of documentation and analyses used to capture spaces, cities, and architecture.
In 2011, I was assigned by OPEN Magazine to take pictures for a story on the cleanest brothel in Sangli, a small town in rural Maharashtra, known for its production of sugar, turmeric, and electricity. It is also known among journalists and NGOs as the unofficial ‘HIV capital’ of the state. Baffled yet curious at the union of the two words, ‘cleanest brothel’, I boarded a bus to Sangli from Bombay.
I reached a day later than I was supposed to and Deepak, a local journalist, the ‘contact’ who was to take me there, had vanished. So I went sightseeing with Uday Deolekar, an old photographer-friend from Sangli. Our wandering yielded another story, about Ashok Awati, a bike mechanic on the outskirts of the town, who had built his own windmill using spare parts from bikes, and installed it on the trunk of a eucalyptus tree.
Deolekar happened to know Bandamma, the ‘madam’ of the brothel and volunteered to introduce me to her. I saw Deepak there, eating boiled chana on an old bench. He didn’t lift his head and hence didn’t register my arrival. To mess with him, I dialed his number. He looked at his phone, shrugged and disconnected. This was followed by a different kind of speechlessness a few seconds later when we came face-to-face.
Bandamma’s brothel is at Dussehra Chowk and could easily pass off as a slum settlement in Bombay. An aerial view shows its twisted plus sign-like shape as if written by a drunk labourer trying to tot up his day’s earnings. The brothel is pink in colour, and gets a new coat of paint every year. It is flanked by engineering workshops on one side and the bank of a lake on the other.
Bu hikaye Domus India dergisinin April 2019 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Giriş Yap
Bu hikaye Domus India dergisinin April 2019 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Giriş Yap
AI COMPANIES MAKE FRESH SAFETY PROMISE AT SEOUL SUMMIT, NATIONS AGREE TO ALIGN WORK ON RISKS
Leading artificial intelligence companies made a fresh pledge at a mini-summit this week to develop AI safely, while world leaders agreed to build a network of publicly backed safety institutes to advance research and testing of the technology.
IS THAT 'HER'? OPENAI PAUSES A CHATGPT VOICE AFTER SOME SAY IT SOUNDS LIKE SCARLETT JOHANSSON
OpenAI says it plans to halt the use of one of its ChatGPT voices after some users said it sounded like Scarlett Johansson, who famously voiced a fictional, and at the time futuristic, AI assistant in the 2013 film “Her.”
TAIWAN IS SELLING MORE TO THE US THAN CHINA IN MAJOR SHIFT AWAY FROM BEIJING
Whether it’s tapioca balls or computer chips, Taiwan is stretching toward the United States and away from China — the world’s No. 2 economy that threatens to take the democratically ruled island by force if necessary.
FCC TO CONSIDER RULES FOR AI-GENERATED POLITICAL ADS ON TV AND RADIO, BUT CAN'T TOUCH STREAMING
The head of the Federal Communications Commission introduced on Wednesday a proposal to require political advertisers to disclose when they use content generated by artificial intelligence in broadcast television and radio ads.
Q&A: CIA'S CHIEF TECHNOLOGIST'S CAUTIOUS EMBRACE OF GENERATIVE AI
Knowledge advantage can save lives, win wars and avert disaster.
Mac + iPad
THE VERY BEST FEATURES OF BOTH PLATFORMS WORKING TOGETHER
AVERAGE US VEHICLE AGE HITS RECORD 12.6 YEARS AS HIGH PRICES FORCE PEOPLE TO KEEP THEM LONGER
Cars, trucks and SUVs in the U.S. keep getting older, hitting a record average age of 12.6 years in 2024 as people hang on to their vehicles largely because new ones cost so much.
NVIDIA'S PROFIT SOARS.UNDERSCORING ITS DOMINANCE IN CHIPS FOR ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
Nvidia on Wednesday overshot Wall Street estimates as its profit skyrocketed, bolstered by the chipmaking dominance that has made the company an icon of the artificial intelligence boom.
SONY SAYS FOCUS IS ON CREATIVITY, WITH GAMES, MOVIES, MUSIC, SENSORS, IP, AND NOT GADGETS
Japanese electronics and entertainment company Sony says it’s focusing on creativity in movies, animation and video games, rather than old-fashioned gadgetry.
EV MAKER TESLA BREAKS GROUND ON MEGAPACK ENERGY STORAGE BATTERY FACTORY IN SHANGHAI
Electric vehicle maker Tesla has begun construction of a factory in Shanghai to make its Megapack energy storage batteries, Chinese state media reported Thursday.
CYBERSECURITY LABELING FOR SMART DEVICES AIMS TO HELP PEOPLE CHOOSE ITEMS LESS LIKELY TO BE HACKED
Consumer labels designed to help Americans pick smart devices that are less vulnerable to hacking could begin appearing on products before the holiday shopping season, federal officials said this week.
LAURYN HILL'S CLASSIC 'MISEDUCATION' ALBUM TOPS APPLE MUSIC'S LIST OF BEST ALBUMS OF ALL TIME
Let the debate begin. Who has the best music albums ever? Apple Music certainly has an idea.
JUSTICE DEPARTMENT SAYS ILLEGAL MONOPOLY BY TICKETMASTER AND LIVE NATION DRIVES UP PRICES FOR FANS
The Justice Department filed a sweeping antitrust lawsuit against Ticketmaster and parent company Live Nation Entertainment on Thursday, accusing them of running an illegal monopoly over live events in America — squelching competition and driving up prices for fans.
CORN, MILLET AND ... ROOFTOP SOLAR? FARM FAMILY'S NEWEST CROP SHOWS CHINA'S SOLAR ASCENDANCY
Shi Mei and her husband earn a decent enough living by growing corn and millet on their small farm in eastern China’s Shandong province. In 2021, they diversified by investing in solar energy — signing a contract to mount some 40 panels on their roof to feed energy to the grid.
USING AI, MASTERCARD EXPECTS TO FIND COMPROMISED CARDS QUICKER, BEFORE THEY GET USED BY CRIMINALS
Mastercard said this week that it expects to be able to discover that your credit or debit card number has been compromised well before it ends up in the hands of a cybercriminal.
'IF,' IMPERFECT BUT CHARMING,MAY HAVE US ALL CHECKING UNDER BEDS FOR OUR OLD FRIENDS
How do you make a kid’s movie that appeals not only to the kids, but the adults sitting next to them? Most movies try to achieve this by throwing in a layer of wink-wink pop culture references that’ll earn a few knowing laughs from parents but fly nicely over the heads of the young ones.
UN SECURITY COUNCIL REJECTS RUSSIA-BACKED RESOLUTION ON BANNING WEAPONS IN SPACE
The United States said this week that Russia last week launched a satellite that could be part of weaponizing space, a possible future global trend that members of the United Nations Security Council condemned even as they failed to pass a measure against it.
NEW CARS IN CALIFORNIA COULD ALERT DRIVERS FOR BREAKING THE SPEED LIMIT
California could eventually join the European Union in requiring all new cars to alert drivers when they break the speed limit, a proposal aimed at reducing traffic deaths that would likely impact motorists across the country should it become law.
FOR SOME DIGITAL DETOX, LOOK TO THE LATEST IN CRAFT KITS
Digital diversions may have us tethered to tech, but screen fatigue is real.
Angelina's SECRETS EXPOSED
Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie's longtime bodyguard tells all about how she turned his kids against their father
MAKIN' TOO MUCH WHOOPI!
X-rated host's booty call TMI stuns viewers
BIDEN WISHES ON THE STARS!
LAME lovebirds Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck are winging their way to divorce court after less than two years of marriage, according to spies who say the two are looking scrawny and wrecked because their toxic union is making them sick!
TOM SELLECK Life, Love & LUCKY BREAKS
SOME VERY VALUABLE ADVICE PUT THE BLUE BLOODS ACTOR ON THE PATH TO FAME AND FORTUNE
KIM’S CRISIS OF CONFIDENCE
THE HITS KEEP COMING AS KIM KARDASHIAN IS HECKLED ON LIVE TV AND TROLLED FOR HER FASHION SENSE.
CAT-EYE RENEE CLAWS BACK!
Dismayed fans ding her super-tight face
Kevin Breaks His Silence on Yellowstone
The actor opens up about the drama and his future on the Western series
Meet the First-Ever Golden Bachelorette!
Maryland-based grandma Joan Vassos tugged at our heartstrings when she made the difficult decision to leave The Golden Bachelor due to a medical concern with her daughter, who'd just given birth.
Princess Beatrice: Called to Action
With Princess Kate absent from public duties amid her ongoing cancer treatment, Princess Beatrice will be upping her responsibilities within the royal family.
THE SKYE'S THE LIMIT
An exclusive interview with style innovator Skye Drynan
JELLY LOSES BELLY AFTER RUNNING FOR HIS LIFE
ROLY-POLY country giant Jelly Roll has raced his way to a 70-pound weight loss! The 39-year-old Son of a Sinner singer, who once tipped the scales at more than 500 pounds, competed in a 5K race in Pasadena, Calif., on May 7.