Fisherwomen-turned-photographers to display their work at Chennai exhibition

Fisherwomen's lives documented through photography showcased in exhibition, offering a glimpse into their world and struggles.

When she was given a DSLR camera, Nagapattinam-based A Mahalakshmi automatically trained her lens on her fellow fisherwomen. She documented the lives of young widows from the fishing community, who struggled to fend for their families with the little they made selling fish. “I shot a lot of photos,” recalls the 34-year-old mother of two, speaking about the three-month workshop by independent photographer M Palanikumar, organised by the NGO Dakshin Foundation in 2023.

“I wondered what we would do with all of it,” she says.

These photos are now set to be displayed at an exhibition at Lalita Kala Akedemi in Chennai. Mahalakshmi is thrilled. “A lot of people will now hear our stories,” she says. Palanikumar says that the women — eight each from Nagapattinam in Tamil Nadu and Ganjam from Odisha — shot over 25,000 photos over the three months. “We will be displaying around 350 of them at the exhibition,” he says: “We hope the show opens up new opportunities for the women,” adding that a handful of them are now keen on taking up photography as a career.

This is the first time fisherwomen from the two states are participating in an exhibition of such scale. “Most of them picked subjects to their liking, following them for several days,” Palanikumar points out.

There are stories on coastal erosion — Pratima from Odisha has documented how her village was gradually eroded over a three-month span; on the nuts and bolts of fishing, right from how fish is caught to how it is sold; how dried fish is made; on how women from the community play a key role in driving its economy. “There are plenty of landscape shots and colour; we can see how different the colour of the sea is in Odisha and Tamil Nadu,” explains Palanikumar.

By documenting their lives, the women captured rare snippets that might be completely new to outsiders. “We get to experience their world through their eyes,” says Palanikumar. “This results in something magical.”

Palanikumar recalls the then Nagapattinam district collector Johny Tom Varghese enquiring if the women can help document the various aspects of the city; some of them also contribute to a local NGO called Sneha. Palanikumar says: “The exhibition is a starting point; one that will show their work to the outside world.”