From rags to reel
Though Vicky Roy prefers to be know for his photography, one can hardly separate the remarkable story behind his rise. From living a life of impoverished drudgery to being one of the four people selected to document the reconstruction of the World Trade Centre at New York through the Wilhelm & Karl Maybach Foundation project, at just 26, Vicky has come a very long way.
A street urchin to a respectable member in his trade, Vicky Roy isn’t just a miracle child but an inspiration to many. Recently in the city for Manthan, a platform for achievers to share their story, Vicky shared his and his works at the Vidyaranya High School.
His tale, he shares, begins in West Bengal where he was staying with his grandparents. Forced to work, the precocious child ran away from home and jumped onto the first train he could find. He was just 11 years old.
“I used to stay at my grandparents home where I was made to do a lot of work. It curbed my dreams to travel, so I stole some money from my uncle’s pocket and took a train that was at the platform which took me to Delhi.” However, once in Delhi, survival became a task. With no place to stay or any idea of where he was, despair naturally set in. “I was crying in a corner at the railway station when some boys spotted me and understood I was a runway. They took me to a Salaam Baalak’s shelter which takes in homeless children,” recalls Vicky. However, in just a day, Vicky found the shelter too constricting and ran away again. “I went back to the railway station and explained my situation to the boys. With their help, I started selling water bottles to passengers. But I still wasn’t happy with the dividends that the work paid, and instead I joined a dhaba as a helper,” narrates Vicky.
As fate would have it, a member of the Salaam Baalak visited the dhaba Vicky was working at and offered to get him an education. Though not really interested in being schooled, he acceded and re-joined another branch of Salaam Baalak, which unlike his former home, did not hold restrictions on residents’ movements.
Nevertheless, his disinterest in education refelcted in his 10th class results where he scored 48 per cent.
“A K Tiwari, the coordinator Apna Ghar shelter of Salaam Baalak, suggested that I learn some other skill. At that time a photography workshop was conducted at our shelter home and speakers of the workshop went to Indonesia on their work. So I figured even I may get an opportunity to travel if I learnt photography,” shares Vicky of the starting point of his current career.
Through Tiwari, Vicky got the opportunity to assist Anay Mann who guided the youngster in the craft. “He used to teach me photography very patiently and I started taking photos. He even exhibited some of my work in his photo exhibition which was visited by a British High Commission member. The diplomat pointed to my photograph and enquired about who took it. Upon learning that it was my work, he offered to exhibit my work.”
With financial assistance from British High Commission and the Department of International Development, Vicky managed his first exhibition of his work titled ‘Street Dreams’. From then on, as they say, there was no looking back.
While success has included him receiving an INK fellowship, being invited to speak at a TEDxGateway conference, and multiple solo exhibitions, Vicky knows better than to get carried away. The modest youngster has since opened an open library for photography enthusiasts through his initiative Rang, which he formed along with fellow photographer Chandhan Gomes.
“Books about the art are very costly, so we requested photographers to donate books about the subject and stacked them at an open library managed by Rang, where people can walk in and read any time.” Vicky also makes it a point to carry a set of 100 books where ever he goes and conducts a workshop and arranges a mobile library.
“In the workshops I conduct, we charge a nominal amount from people who cannot afford the entire fee,” he informs. To give back to the home which gave him shelter, he teaches photography skills to children coming from same background. “I intend to continue teaching children who are interested in photography,” shares the youngster who also teaches at various NGOs and even arranges talks by other photographers.
Since becoming a professional lensman, the young child’s ambition of travelling and seeing the world has been realised. Vicky has travelled to the United States, United Kingdom, Bahrain and Singapore, but says that he’s only just begun.
Though based in Delhi, the photographer isn’t new to Hyderabad, having come here on quite a few occasions, and is currently working on a documentation project for the LV Prasad Eye Institute.