THIRUVANANTHAPURAM : Bustling markets where vendors scramble to sell anything from vegetables to gold and wholesalers striking a deal with customers -- German photographer Nora Bibel has captured the way of life in Chalai market.“I like to focus my camera more on people and learn about their cultures. The Chalai project is focused on the city’s centuries-old wholesale market, the heritage structures and the people living there,” says Nora, ahead of the launch of the photo-documentary web portal on the Chalai market.
Nora said: “It was a couple of years ago on my visit to Kerala that I happened to meet Syed Ibrahim, director of Goethe-Zentrum. He told me about Chalai. I considered researching the market. I stayed back for a month and visited the place everyday. I was able to explore market secrets.” In 2016, Nora organised a photography exhibition on the market which was well-received.
“Initially, we thought of publishing a book and then after several discussions, we considered creating a web page which would be accessible for people around the globe,” said Nora.She felt that some more images have to be added to the web portal and so she flew down to the city again from Germany last year and captured more images, sound recordings and interviews.
The web portal consists of 10 different categories such as flower market, vegetable market, wholesalers and heritage structures, and each category includes 20 to 40 images. The Berlin-based photographer said capturing the way of life in the Chalai market was challenging and exciting. “Finding subjects was a daunting task and sometimes the market was not comfortable enough for a photoshoot,” she said.
“Anjali of Goethe Zentrum assisted me and helped in talking with the people. The photography exhibition also helped introduce the concept to the people in the market,” she added.This is not the first time that Nora has captured the life and culture of Indians.
Her first project was ‘Family comes first’ which focused on the joint families in Bengaluru. She plans her next project in Indonesia based on climate migration. The photo-documentary web portal will be launched by Minister for Tourism Kadakampally Surendran at Goethe-Zentrum on Friday.