Out of the gypsy caravan
By Indian Express
Tuesday January 2, 11:52 PM
The gypsies are back. A girl is admiring herself in the mirror. An impish boy is peeking up a skirt. Without flamenco music and swinging skirts, the Roma just peer at you - from within the frames of Zsuzsanna Ardo's photographs. Sometimes, they have their faces turned away.
Black-and-white photographs may seem like an odd choice to capture the life of the colourful Roma but Ardo, Hungarian writer and photographer, is not keen on the exotic. She zooms in on the ordinariness of Europe's largest ethnic community. But the focus is soft, Ardo's eye sensitive.
"These are the moments that touched me," she says. The idea was not to depict the economic misery of the Roma but the way they live, the light as well as the serious moments they encounter." But the intent of the exhibition is serious. Called "The Roma Decade", it refers to the Decade of Roma Inclusion 2005-15, a commitment by some European governments to combat the Roma's poverty and exclusion.
Seeing the Roma up-close was not easy, though. Over the last two summers, as Ardo wandered in Budapest and by the Danube, they often kept away. "Some were suspicious, but eventually most of them allowed me to picture a slice of their lives," she says. The Roma, who were hounded in Europe, are a disillusioned lot. Amid all their inherited bohemianism, they see the greyness that Ardo has captured. But things are changing. "They are adapting themselves to global developments," says Ardo.
The free-spirited gypsies may still scoff at something called home but for those known to have descended from India, who have a chakra as their symbol and who would call out rani and gav in their musical Romany language, this is homecoming. Even if it is in black and white.
The exhibition will travel to the UK and Turkey.
The exhibition at the India International Centre ends on January 3.
http://in.news.yahoo.com/070102/48/6armg.html
Tuesday January 2, 11:52 PM
The gypsies are back. A girl is admiring herself in the mirror. An impish boy is peeking up a skirt. Without flamenco music and swinging skirts, the Roma just peer at you - from within the frames of Zsuzsanna Ardo's photographs. Sometimes, they have their faces turned away.
Black-and-white photographs may seem like an odd choice to capture the life of the colourful Roma but Ardo, Hungarian writer and photographer, is not keen on the exotic. She zooms in on the ordinariness of Europe's largest ethnic community. But the focus is soft, Ardo's eye sensitive.
"These are the moments that touched me," she says. The idea was not to depict the economic misery of the Roma but the way they live, the light as well as the serious moments they encounter." But the intent of the exhibition is serious. Called "The Roma Decade", it refers to the Decade of Roma Inclusion 2005-15, a commitment by some European governments to combat the Roma's poverty and exclusion.
Seeing the Roma up-close was not easy, though. Over the last two summers, as Ardo wandered in Budapest and by the Danube, they often kept away. "Some were suspicious, but eventually most of them allowed me to picture a slice of their lives," she says. The Roma, who were hounded in Europe, are a disillusioned lot. Amid all their inherited bohemianism, they see the greyness that Ardo has captured. But things are changing. "They are adapting themselves to global developments," says Ardo.
The free-spirited gypsies may still scoff at something called home but for those known to have descended from India, who have a chakra as their symbol and who would call out rani and gav in their musical Romany language, this is homecoming. Even if it is in black and white.
The exhibition will travel to the UK and Turkey.
The exhibition at the India International Centre ends on January 3.
http://in.news.yahoo.com/070102/48/6armg.html
posted by Allie @ 3:02 PM
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