Photographic Portfolio
Sharbendu De
Te l : + 9 1 9 9 9 9 0 8 5 5 6 5 de.sharbendu@gmail.com w w w. d e s h a r b e n d u . c o m
Sharbendu De is a documentary photographer and writer with over 10 years experience and a keen interest in human rights issues, particularly disasters, displacement, and gender justice. Additionally, he also shoots videos. He also teaches photojournalism in the Department of Journalism at Jamia Millia Islamia University, New Delhi. He’s photographed for several international organisations including Oxfam, Save The Children, Save The Children Finland, Plan India, Room To Read, Greenpeace, Rotary International, Dan Church Aid and Christian Aid. De has photographed four different natural disasters in India, including the Uttarakhand flash floods in 2013. His editorial work has been published in various magazines and newspapers, including, The Caravan, Motherland, Marie Claire India, The Indian Express, The Hindu, Down To Earth, The Sunday Guardian, Outlook Traveller, Jetwings, Discover India, India Today Travel Plus and The Hindustan Times, among others. Oxfam India hosted a solo photography exhibition of his work on the Uttarakhand disaster at DELL Art Gallery, Gurgaon (2014). He’s also exhibited in two group exhibitions: Diesel Art Gallery, Mumbai (2012) and Ambika P3 Gallery, London (2010). He has an MA in Photojournalism from the University of Westminster, London, and a Post Graduate Diploma in Journalism from the Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC), New Delhi. This portfolio demonstrates his visual style and aesthetic sense across commissioned assignments and self-funded projects. His five years of programme management experience in the not-for-profit sector (refer CV), gives him an edge in understanding their requirements and successfully delivering them. He lives in New Delhi and travels on assignments.
Twenty years ago a tout brought Anisha (right) from Assam to Alwar district in Rajasthan, where she was married to Iliyas Khan. Since then she’s never visited her home or knows her parents whereabouts. The cultural preference for boys in Indian society has led to increased infanticide and foeticide, leaving only 933 females for every 1000 males. Many men from states with the lowest sex ratios, like Haryana, Punjab and Rajasthan, now resort to buying brides.
Harda district, Madhya Pradesh, 2010. “I am not allowed to go out of the house. They say, ‘you are a woman. What do you want? Now will you go roaming around the village, attend meetings and sit with the men?’” says Geeta Bai, an elected member of Bawadia panchayat (India’s village level governance system).
India has largely been a patriarchal as well as a feudal state. For every 1000 men there are only 933 women in the country. Every day, women work more than men, but earn 62 per cent less than the average male wage, reflecting a deep gender divide. Despite the odds, over three million women have made it to public office.
New Delhi, 2013. Additional Commissionar of Police Suman Nalwa in-charge of Special Police Unit for Women & Children in New Delhi, meets female complainants trying to address rising crimes against women in the city. Photographed for The Caravan Magazine, Novemebr 2013 issue.
Vishakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, 2012. A young woman works as a waitress in a restaurant. The restaurant owner had employed all young girls to works as waitresses, giving priority to hiring women over men, a not-so-familiar employment practice in an otherwise patriarchal society.
Covering disasters
Flash floods in Uttarakhand
In mid-June 2013, heavy rainfall and cloudbursts over the picturesque Indian Himalayan state of Uttarakhand, caused major flash floods. Over 1,50,000 people across 400 villages were affected and over4,000 lives lost. Produced photographic and video documentaries around tales of loss, resilience, and hope, across Uttarkashi and Rudraprayag for Oxfam India and Saferworld Communications.
A 70-year-old woman from Didsari village in Uttarkashi district. When the flash floods hit their village, their entire farmland and over 20 houses were swept away. Sensing trouble, the villagers had run to high ground, picking up their valuables, utensils, documents and medicines. She picked up her grandson and ran to safety, caring little about anything else.
Didsari Village, Uttarkashi, Uttarakhand. Due to the flash floods, the road to Didsari had caved in, thus disrupting all communications between the village and access to relief efforts. Villagers, including women, had to trek down to the nearest spot to collect the relief supplies, as the government wasn’t able to send relief materials to their village.
Uttarkashi, Uttarakhand. A man stands outside his house destroyed by the flash floods in the Valmiki Colony on the fringes of Uttarkashi town situated beside the river. The Valmikis are considered to be part of the bottom rung of India`s caste system. They usually work as sweepers and manual scavengers.
Uttarkashi, July 2013. A father at a temprary relief shelter with his children. He’s worried about his family’s future, but his children, oblivious of the disaster, continue playing.
Khumera Village, Rudraprayag district. Prakash Lal with his wife and children outside their erstwhile home. Prakash’s house collapsed in the night due to a landslide triggered by heavy rainfall.
Uttarkashi, July 2013. An elderly woman with all that she could salvage from the floods.
Rudraprayag district, 2013. 27-year-old Sarojini Devi lost her husband Harshvardhan Singh in the flash floods. He used to work at a grocery store in Kedarnath (a key pilgrimage tourist destination) and was one of the thousands to die in the disaster. His family couldn’t even trace his body to perform the last rites. Now Sarojini is left to cope with this irreparable loss, and also raise her two young children, a five-year-old son Happy and a three-year-old daughter Simran.
Rudraprayag district, 2013. Oxfam India responds to the crisis.
Covering disasters
Cyclone in Tamil Nadu
In July 2012, Safer World Communications/SEEDS India, for Dan ChurchAid and Christian Aid respectively, commissioned Sharbendu to visually document the after affects of natural disasters on Dalit communities (considered to be part of the bottom rung of India`s caste system) living in Cuddalore district of Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry. When Cyclone Thane struck India's eastern coastline on 31st December 2011, it brought destruction to the coastal areas of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Pondicherry, leaving a major population homeless, and in distress. The portraits convey the resilience of the victims and their families trying to rebuild their lives in the aftermath.
Cuddalore, Tamil Nadu, July 2012. A dalit house destroyed in the Cyclone Thane still in disrepair after seven months. A poster of Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, the architect of Indian constitution and foremost champion of dalit rights hangs from the wall.
40-year-old Valli Maiyle outside her newly constructed hut in Ambedkar Nagar village, Cuddalore district, Tamil Nadu. Her hut was destroyed by Cyclone Thane in 2011. Six years back, her husband had abandoned her for another woman. She fends for herself as a daily wage labourer. Without social security or any institutional support mechanisms, she fell into the moneylender’s trap to rebuild her hut.
A villager finds new confidence during her experience working with the local NGO.
Ambedkar Nagar village, Cuddalore, Tamil Nadu. 23-year-old Jhansi Rani stands with her children in front of their new makeshift hut, in the Dalit-dominated Ambedkar Nagar village in Cuddalore district, Tamil Nadu. She holds a photograph of her family standing before their old home, which was destroyed by the Cyclone Thane that struck on the night of 31st December, 2011. Their roof caved in on them in the middle of the night, and she couldn’t pull her husband and children to safety. Later, her neighbours came to their rescue. Last year, Jhansi’s husband Arivalahah lost a leg in an accident. Since then he’s been confined to their tiny thatched roof, forcing Jhansi to step up as the family's main bread-earner; she works as a daily wage labour earning roughly Rs. 100 per day on the days she finds work. Despite the odds, Arivalahah tries to help her to the best of his potential.
Arivalahah, Jhani Rani’s husband outside their hut.
Covering disasters
Floods in Orissa
Routsahi village, Jajpur district, Orissa. 56-year-old Urbashi Dalai watches over a stretch of low-level fallow land which is hit by floods every year. Flood water enters Dalai’s village through these fields, eventually destroying everything in their path. In her mind, a distinct relationship exists between Routsahi village, floods, and her marriage. "Routsahi was hit by the floods when I got married. My husband brought me to his village in a canoe, meandering through these innundated fields," she explained. "Sitting in that canoe, scared of the flood water, it was the first time I had seen Routsahi - the village which was to become my home, forever."
Routsahi village, Jajpur district, Orissa. 55-year-old Rabindra Mallick, is the founder of a local NGO named SGP in Routsahi, a partner of Christian Aid. He’s seen innumerable floods in his lifetime, and yet something about it disturbs him deeply. “It was floods when I was born. Our village and house was entirely flooded, and the waters had stagnated for over a week then. Without any alternative, my mother gave birth to me on a stilted platform,” says Rabindra.
Anthropological Portraits
Imagined Homeland The Lisus are a Tibeto-Burmese tribe that had migrated from the Yunnan province in China via Myanmar into the Changlang district of Arunachal Pradesh, eventually making a home in the deep forests of Namdapha. In 1985, Govt. of India notified part (1985 sq. km) of the 20,000 sq. km. contiguous forest stretching from Arunachal into the Hukong Valley in North Myanmar, declaring it as Namdapha National Park and Tiger Reserve. Without any knowledge or informed consent, the life and residency status of these peaceful Lisu tribals had changed overnight. Claiming the Lisus to be poachers, the government has been trying to evict them from the park. But the Lisus say they belong there, in the land where their ancestors lived, and died. For them, life outside the forest is inconceivable. Once evicted, their future will be uncertain, risking loss of identity. The series deals less with their present life inside the park, but more with what might happen in the absence of it, and thus the anthropological portraits devoid of a context, suggesting towards not what exists, but ‘who’ they are, and what might be lost.
Photo Story
Women in Indian Armed Forces
Young girls in Tarn Taran district of Punjab, with the help of an organisation called Nishan-e-Sikhi, are undergoing training to join the Indian armed forces. This is a rare window of opportunity for many young girls from underprivileged backgrounds, who get to prove their worth in a patriarchal society, stand up on their feet and earn their livelihood with dignity. Social attitudes here accord women a lower social status. Women don’t venture out on their own, and men make most of the decisions for them. In this environment, it is rather unusual for a group of girls to aspire to enter the Indian armed forces, one of the last male bastions. Each of them has their own reason. While some are candid in admitting that a job in the forces means financial freedom, for most of them it is also an opportunity to transcend patriarchal barriers, to serve the nation, and earn a place of respect in return.
Photo Story
Women in Indian Boxing
Margherita, Assam. Boxing trainees practice in the backyard of Coach Sam Daniel.
Howrah, West Bengal. Chaitali Kapat, a 14-year-old girl practices boxing under a tree in the morning.
Patiala, Punjab, 2012. A contestant from Mizoram after losing her match in the Sub-Junior Women’s National Boxing Championship.
P atiala, Punaj, 2012. Friends console a contestant from Mizoram after she lost the match in the Sub-Junior Women’s National Boxing Championship.
Children in and out of school
Children accessing Room To Read’s child friendly libraries set up across multiple municipal schools in Delhi and Mumbai. Commissioning Agency: Room To Read
Alwar, Rajasthan 2011. A young boy works as a child labourer herding villager’s livestock. Commissioning Agency: Save The Children Bal Raksha Bharat for their ‘Child Labour Campaign’.
Children ragpicking on the streets of New Delhi. Commissioning Agency: Save The Children Bal Raksha Bharat for their ‘Child Labour Campaign’.
Delhi, 2011. Children work in garment making industries from their homes in Geeta Colony, Delhi. Commissioning Agency: Save The Children Bal Raksha Bharat for their ‘Child Labour Campaign’.