This photo was also posted on my other blog, but I thought it would be a good place to start here, as well. The comments below are also pretty much the same, though I've added a bit, and thrown in a second photo.
I took the photo in December, 2006 while returning from the border ceremony at Wagah, near Lahore. I find myself returning to this face very often - something about the man himself, and the portrait, seems to have become part of me.
He is a worker in one of the brick kilns that dot the landscape in northern Punjab, where they make bricks from the red clay. I had wanted to have a look inside one of these places for a while, and my driver stopped spontaneously, suggesting we go in here. I was only there for about 10 minutes, but it was enough to confirm that I am very glad this is not my lot in life.
Many (some say most or all) of the labourers in these kilns are essentially slaves - bonded-debt labourers. I don't know what this young man's status is, but I fear he is in that group. Like most Pakistanis he was very happy about having his picture taken by a Western visitor, and when I showed him his own face on the back of my digital camera, he squealed with delight and ran off laughing. I still think of him often.
The other photo is the same man with his companions. When I invited them to have their photo taken, they were naturally very happy - and a couple of the quickly ran off to get a couple of bricks and some materials they use in their work.
I took the photo in December, 2006 while returning from the border ceremony at Wagah, near Lahore. I find myself returning to this face very often - something about the man himself, and the portrait, seems to have become part of me.
He is a worker in one of the brick kilns that dot the landscape in northern Punjab, where they make bricks from the red clay. I had wanted to have a look inside one of these places for a while, and my driver stopped spontaneously, suggesting we go in here. I was only there for about 10 minutes, but it was enough to confirm that I am very glad this is not my lot in life.
Many (some say most or all) of the labourers in these kilns are essentially slaves - bonded-debt labourers. I don't know what this young man's status is, but I fear he is in that group. Like most Pakistanis he was very happy about having his picture taken by a Western visitor, and when I showed him his own face on the back of my digital camera, he squealed with delight and ran off laughing. I still think of him often.
The other photo is the same man with his companions. When I invited them to have their photo taken, they were naturally very happy - and a couple of the quickly ran off to get a couple of bricks and some materials they use in their work.
I wish I knew what was in that bag.
And a quick aside: In a comment on these photos over on Flickr (click on either picture to go to that site), one reader pointed me to a story about the brick kiln workers in a newspaper website from India. Worth looking at, I think.
And a quick aside: In a comment on these photos over on Flickr (click on either picture to go to that site), one reader pointed me to a story about the brick kiln workers in a newspaper website from India. Worth looking at, I think.
1 comment:
Seeing this post makes me very sad. Things would be very different had feudalism been abolished. But that will never happen, since the same feudals form the government.
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