Hold close what has been forgotten or ‘Marannathine cherthupidikkuka’. This is the ethos that defines Jinson Abraham’s personal work as a photographer.
His work excavates histories that have fallen through the cracks of collective memory — the labour of women who built Keralam’s coir industry, the struggles over how women could dress, and the lives of people rarely found in history’s portraits.
Through his continuing project ‘Kollavarsham’, Jinson is piecing together this scattered inheritance and restoring forgotten histories to the visual record. It is a different pursuit for someone whose career began in fashion, celebrities and people in the public eye.
Jinson was working as a software developer when he bought his first camera. Photography was a hobby until a company he worked in launched a lifestyle magazine in Kochi. He began taking photos for the publication and soon found the medium offered him something his software job did not.
“I realised that photography was what made me happy. When people began appreciating my pictures, I thought I should take it seriously,” he says.
A self-taught photographer, he learnt through practice and by working alongside established photographers in Keralam. He eventually became the chief photographer and has worked with several prominent actors, including Mohanlal, Manju Warrier, Aparna Balamurali and Rima Kallingal.
Looking back, Jinson recalls two assignments that changed the way he understood the medium. The first was a 2015 jewellery advertisement featuring actor Shruti Menon. In the photo, she was bare from the waist up, wearing only heavy traditional gold and heirloom bridal jewellery. The image sparked controversy. In 2017, he photographed the breastfeeding awareness cover for another lifestyle magazine, which sparked a nationwide debate and received international coverage.
“Those experiences made me realise that photography is not just about taking beautiful pictures. People often say it is a dying industry, but even within this medium, we have a voice. We can use it to raise questions and make people think,” he says.
Later, Jinson founded his own media house, expanding into film production. However, when the pandemic struck, commissioned work for magazines became scarce. That was when Jinson’s attention shifted towards doing something of his own, rather than photographing for other people’s projects.
“From that dream, Kollavarsham, a calendar featuring Malayalam numerals, began taking shape. I shot the first edition in 2023 as a hobby project. The response was encouraging, and many people asked me to continue. So, in 2024, I developed it into a much larger project. This is now the third edition,” he says.
Kollavarsham 1200 explored Keralam’s coir industry and the women whose labour sustains it. Photographed in coconut groves and coir-making units, the series celebrated coir through images of women workers, accompanied by calendar panels featuring traditional Malayalam numerals.
Now, with Kollavarsham 1202, he turns to the history of women’s clothing and the politics of the female body. Nearly a year of research went into examining how caste, occupation, climate, and social conventions influenced the way women dressed, he says.
Titled ‘Munne: Ippol: Ini’ (Before: Now: Hereafter), the project explores clothing as a record of social change, drawing on historical garments such as the Uttariyam, Kanchukam and Stanapattam.
Its 13 portraits comprise 12 women representing the Malayalam months and a central figure associated with ‘Kalam’ (time). Arranged together, the photographs evoke Leonardo da Vinci’s ‘The Last Supper’. A companion series, Udal, is organised around seven ideas — body, environment, mark, measure, refusal, settlement and inheritance — examining the relationship between clothing, social identity and bodily autonomy.
“I am not trying to recreate history. I want people to remember what has been forgotten. We know the stories of kings and prominent figures, but what about the ordinary people who lived through those periods? Their lives and experiences also deserve to be seen,” he says.
The photographs are made using a Sinar F2 large-format analogue camera and 4x5-inch sheet film. The team avoided conventional make-up and cosmetics. Around 24 people participated, several volunteering their time.
Photographer Alekh Ajayaghosh provided the large-format camera and technical guidance, Jinson says. Each photograph took around 35 to 40 minutes to develop, with approximately 35 images produced.
The exhibition drew a huge turnout at both venues — Durbar Hall Art Gallery in Kochi and the College of Fine Arts Kerala in Thiruvananthapuram — when it was held.
“I am happy with the response from Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram. We will begin researching the next edition after December. It could explore jewellery, martial arts, traditional art forms or different ways of dressing. Whatever the subject, I want to continue using fashion and photography to bring forgotten histories into the present,” Jinson says.