K. Kavitha
Scroll down to view her photography
“I need a bigger camera! Then we will go to the forest and take nature photos – maybe of tigers. Earlier we used to just hold the phone camera however, but now I have a sense of what makes a good photo. Earlier photos cut peoples head or hands, but now I know about how to crop an image, how to compose a strong picture. Despite learning all these things, when I go to make photos, I still make mistakes, but now I know what they are. I move my body with the camera, rather than standing still. This means I’m able to focus on what people are doing and take strong pictures.”
K Kavitha
“This is shot of the view outside my house – I was just testing out the camera. You can see a clothing shop, and the house with the blue door is a place with four machines, where people come to work – it’s not my place of work though. It’s 6.30am in the morning, when the light is nice, so there’s no one there.”
“I worked in a setting like this for three years myself. But years back, with the help of SAVE, I took out a loan, and started with the first machine. Now I own four machines, and I can give work to others. For ten years, I’ve employed the same set of people. I’m the leader of our workers collective and I work for the good of the entire workers, so they can have their rights. Even in my own factory, I want workers to have the rights they deserve.”
“These are used in the first stage of spinning, to wind the thread about. So this is the basic equipment we need to run our machines. I liked the colours – the orange and the blue.”
This is a neighbour, who is a single lady who used to work as homebased worker. She’s now set up a shop and sells garments. It’s a better way of earning money. She goes to the market district and buys low budget things to sell. She’s earning more than she used to get as a homebased worker. I like this photo because she was low on self confidence, and taking this image of her sat in her shop shows she is now confident and taking change.”
"I shot this photo during the women’s day celebration conduct as part of ANUKATHAM group, during these events we explain women workers about their rights and why they should join ANUKATHAM. We also talk in detail about getting regular work, fair wages, fixed income, safety, sanitation and the need to work for government benefits like maternity benefits, provident fund, health insurance etc. It is because of these events, ANUKATHAM today has 3000 active members"
"This is a neighbour, who is a single lady who used to work as homebased worker. She’s now set up a shop and sells garments. It’s a better way of earning money. She goes to the market district and buys low budget things to sell. She’s earning more than she used to get as a homebased worker. I like this photo because she was low on self confidence, and taking this image of her sat in her shop shows she is now confident and taking change.”