The yellow and grey walls of the Vadehra Art Gallery provide a perfect backdrop for the ‘Sapnon ki Udaan’ exhibition. The curator of the exhibition, photographer Vicky Roy, explains that the idea behind it was to show the duality of the lives of homeless children. “We wanted to capture how the lives of the kids change when they live on the streets and when they go to shelter homes. When they move in there, it feels that after a long time they again belong to a home,” he says.
Director Mira Nair’s award-winning film of the ’80s, Salaam Bombay, revealed the dark underbelly of Mumbai’s streets, where the survival of children were at stake and yet they lived with a certain flamboyance. In December 1988, the Salaam Baalak Trust not-for-profit and non-governmental organisation was founded in Delhi for street and working children in the National Capital Region.
‘Sapnon ki Udaan’, a collaboration between the Salaam Baalak Trust and Vadehra Art Gallery showcases the photographs of four artists —Saina Munjal, Sanjay Kumar, Rasil Khan and Vicky Roy.
The photographs of ‘Sapnon ki Udaan’, convey that it is a passion project. Kumar, Khan and Roy’s connection with Salaam Baalak run deep. All three have lived in the NGO’s shelter homes and it is through the Salaam Baalak Trust that they were first introduced to photography and began to develop a passion for it. The current exhibition features children living on the streets and in shelter homes, some with their faces covered with handmade masks and some with their emotions in full view.
Roy, one of the oldest members of Salaam Baalak since its inception, has often highlighted the lives of street children in his photographic projects. One of his first exhibition, ‘Street Dreams’ was showcased in the India International Centre in Delhi in 2007. In 2020, his digital exhibition, titled ‘Bachpan’, was showcased at the Vadehra Art Gallery.
Kumar, a freelance photographer, says that he is, however, more drawn to artistic projects. “I realised that as time passes, I will always create some new artwork or collaborate with creative people,” he says.
Munjal is a high school student and a photographer on the side. Her relationship with the NGO is a recent one.
“I used to go to Old Delhi a lot because it is one of the best places to get photos. One of these times, I did a Salaam Balak city walk and that is when I found out about them,” the young photographer says of the subjects of her photography.
When she wanted to feature the children from Salaam Baalak to capture their dreams in her photos, she was put in contact with Roy. However, the government restriction on capturing children from vulnerable backgrounds posed a problem in taking candid shots in which they could show their faces. She and her collaborators then hit upon the idea of using masks.
Munjal’s interactions with the children led them to express their secret desires and ambitions, about what they want to be “when they grow up”, which were then creatively translated onto their handmade masks that shielded their faces.
Munjal’s photographs show that the children’s dreams remain unfettered even in the face of unfortunate circumstances. While one conveyed through the artfully painted mask the desire to become a beautician, another showed interest in joining the armed forces. Others showed their artistic potential by making masks with creative interpretations of their favourite animals.
The exhibition is curated in a manner so that Munjal’s photos of the masked children living in a shelter home and nursing their dreams and ambitions are contrasted—but not in an obvious manner—with Khan, Kumar and Roy’s photographs of children living on the street. These “differences” are not highlighted as the aim of the project was not to play up the plight of the children. The photos instead show that misfortunes do not shackle the children’s dreams nor does it stop them from enjoying themselves.
Khan, whose favourite photo is of a young boy smoking a beedi near a railway track, says: “It reflects on how these kids think. Who cares even if the situation is unfortunate? Life is all about chilling”.
‘Sapnon ki Udaan’ recently concluded on August 16 at D-53 Vadehra Gallery, Defence Colony, New Delhi.