City-based Belgian photographer Virginie Vlaminck’s latest works also features everyday life of Chennai. Proceeds from this exhibition will go towards her clean-up initiative, ‘Namma Beach, Namma Chennai’
CHENNAI: A group of boys sit around a broken-down car, laughing into the lens of the camera. Strewn around them is garbage but they’re indifferent to it. “It was really shocking because that’s not common for me, but it seemed extremely common for them!” sighs Virginie Vlaminck.
The Belgian photographer admits that she understands the different mind-sets which we’ve grown with, and there is no wrong and right, but she emphasises on the health hazards posed by mindless disposal of garbage and waste — something Virginie wishes to rectify through her initiative ‘Namma Beach, Namma Chennai’. We walk with her around the gallery, where her fifth exhibition in the city, titled ‘The small things that matter (to me)’ opens today, and through the several frames, she shows us how she sees Chennai.
A scout girl, Virginie loved taking a camera along during scouts’ trips. After graduating in photography, she pursued it as a profession for two years covering weddings and events, but her heart always lay in doing something more. In 1994, she moved to Africa to work on development projects, working with farmers for better agricultural practices and women empowerment.
“Travelling and working around Africa for 15 years, I used photography as a tool to spread the message about the communities, which we used in presentations for sponsorships,” she says. After Africa, she moved to Abu Dhabi with her family, which she says was a somewhat ‘superficial’ experience, despite its beauty and glamour, and then to Manila, Philippines and then finally to Chennai about seven years ago.
Residing in Injambakkam, she was shocked at the sheer amount of garbage on the beaches. “When you love nature, living in Chennai can be heart-breaking. You see garbage everywhere when you arrive in the city,” she rues.
Virginie began cleaning the beach every morning, gradually bringing in expats living along her street to help her, organising ‘Namma Beach, Namma Chennai’. “I made a poster juxtaposing pictures of a dirty and a clean beach, just to make a point,” she says.
The initiative soon received the help of the city corporation, which set up concrete bins, and organised cleaning of corporation schools’ premises and toilets etc. Eventually, she also contacted some people who work in the morning for the Corporation to clean the beach after their shifts, for which she also pays them remuneration.
Her exhibition shows slices of life of everyday Chennai — namma tea kadais, horses beneath the MRTS columns, adjacent to Chepauk, a young girl enjoying her watermelon in the summer heat and so much more. “Everyday something different happens around Chennai. There are so many colours, traditions, cultures in Chennai and India as a whole!” She says she never gets bored of walking or driving around Chennai. “Like for instance, in the middle of the city, I found this little oasis where these men were caring for these beautiful horses so well. I was so surprised,” she laughs.
About her experiences, she says it is very easy as a foreigner here to be included. “People invite me for tea though they don’t even know me,” she gushes. The exhibition also features frames from her travels around India — Haridwar, Jaipur, Jodhpur, Nagaur etc. “Ladakh was another favourite — the peaceful mountains and scenery. Every corner of India has something beautiful,” she smiles. Proceeds from the exhibition will go to the funding of ‘Namma Beach Namma Chennai’.
Before bidding farewell, we pause to look at a life-size portrait of an old man carrying a rucksack on his back. “He is one of the men who constantly comes to pick up plastic from around the beach. It is really hard and they don’t even earn much from it,” she notes, calling him one of the ‘real heroes’ of Namma Beach, Namma Chennai.
Clean everyday
Virginie emphasises that if you feel a change is too small, then nothing will ever change. “We should look at cleaning the beach too as an everyday process! It is never ending, yes — but we still need to do it, right?” she points out.
‘The small things that matter (to me)’ will be inaugurated today at 7 pm. The exhibit will go on till Jan 31, at the Lakshana Art gallery, Abhiramapuram. For details call: 9884801209. or visit ‘Namma Beach, Namma Chennai’ on FB.