Video Work!

So I've been working with a lot of video in addition to the still photography work I normally do. Least to say it's been an amazing and exciting journey! Here are a images from my phone of a recent, fun  video shoot with a crew of amazing young kids.

Ladki | Exhibition Opening February 19 | 5.30pm

Exhibition opening February 19 in New Delhi with my work on girl child education! Look forward to see you there. Mansi

Fighting Breast Cancer in India/The New York Times

©Mansi Midha for the New York Times

Women of Pure Wonder

So excited to be a part of this incredible book project by the Vodafone Foundation/Roli Books featuring 60 Indian women of change. The 175-page book was also produced by an all woman team - from superwoman Ashima Narain as photo editor to publisher, designer and fellow photographers,Karen Dias, Anusha Yadav, Aparna Jayakumar and Kavita Dixit. I had the opportunity to photograph 20 of the amazing women featured in the book! The book was launched in Delhi on December 04 amidst much furor and bollywood fan frenzy. There was a panel discussion led by Vikram Chandra featuring some of the women from the book, film actress Kajol, Suhel Seth etc. The book launch in Mumbai took place right after at the Mumbai LitFest... Super inspired to have been in the company of all the wonderful ladies!

In the July edition of Marie Claire India

'Empowering Women Journalists in J&K'

In March, 2013, I had the opportunity of working with the incredible women of the GPI News Desk in Srinagar, Kashmir. 

April's fool.

so, I enter the busiest time of my professional career as a photographer

and guess what? I earn myself a slipped disc. great. 

Unfair. Cruel. Angered and in Disbelief!

It's been a tough few weeks, shooting and traveling in a lot of pain and refusing to get x-rayed, never imagining that it could be more then a bad backache... right upto dealing with complete bed rest and not being able to do anything because I managed to screw things up pretty bad.

Lesson Learnt : Listen to the doctor, when he prescribes a x-ray... don't wait for weeks until you finally succumb to one - I would have still been sitting in a lot of pain had it not been for friends who literally pushed me to get one. There I was confronted by a livid doctor who went ballistic over my 'carelessness' ... 

The idea of lying flat and not being able to do anything was horrifying to begin with considering my very short attention span and the inability to sit still for an hour let alone days. The fact that the medicines wouldn't drug me out as they should have wasn't very helpful so I didn't really sleep through it all. This new but short lived 'lifestyle' accompanied with restlessness and the inherent need of doing things (constantly!) needed to find ways to amuse;

1. Facebook! 

Because its so hard to lie still and because counting the number of times the ceiling fan makes a rotation in a minute gets old fast… well… I was entertained for a minute!

2. Think = Stress

SO much time to think because nothing really holds your attention long enough. Where am I going? What am I doing? Where do I want to be? 

3. The effects of restlessness ensure a quick bounce rate i.e sit up. feel the pain. lie down. sit up. feel the pain. lie down. sit up. feel the pain. lie down. sit up. feel the pain. lie down. 

4. Read a book 

think you'll read a book, coz there hasn't been a better time to go through the ones accumulating on the bookshelf and being saved for 'down time' but you open a book. close it. open a book. close it. 

5. Abuse and Cry...

but mostly, Feel the love!

because friends and family will just drop by and some even bring goodies. I've felt rotten spoilt with all the love pouring in, friends coming by to just hang out, talk shit, bitch work - If I survived the last few weeks its because of them! Even Milo (the pet resident) would sit next to my bed carefully sliding under my arm that was usually hanging off the bed, in the hope of getting a share of the love. Thank you to my pretty amazing family who were constantly around trying to make things a little less painful. 

6. Tell clients you're 'booked out'

you promised the doc to not take on more assignments. Did I ever say how angry the doctor was? 

7. Live up to your commitments, In pain or not - 

Arrive at an assignment with a bag on wheels - never done that and would never under 'normal' circumstances - but you gotta suck it up and 'see it through'.

8. Discover some really great music 

and also discover that for the nights you can't sleep... the radio plays music to die for… and without ad breaks! 

Highlight : 95 FM Saturday Night fever, lying flat on the roof under the stars in whats been some of the best April weather in Delhi. 

9. Archive. Backup. Clean

Because there hasn't been a better time to do this. Also managed to clean up my website - finishing anything for myself is admittedly slow but I'm going to be adding new work in the coming weeks as it gets published. 

10. Make Images

because you're a photographer and there isn't anything else in the world you would rather do. So… lots of snapshots of the fan, of the walls, of the people who visited me and of my view outside…

I'm up and about today at about 80%, strapped up with my back support and heading out for the day on a pretty exciting yet nerve wrecking assignment… feeling pretty human for the most part.

If you're a potential client reading this - yes, I will still be able to take those 15 hour long road trips and I can even carry a stash of gear on my back… ok maybe not yet… but soon.

From the archives

Found this image from my first ever 'assignment'. I was a student of Communication Design in 2006 when I accompanied a research team around Andhra Pradesh to document a rural schooling project.

© Mansi Midha

Destiny's Children

2012 is here with promises made to get back into photographing more and organizing less! Hopefully that will ensure that the blog stays up to date with more images and travel notes.

Here's a quick assignment I did for the January edition of the Motherland magazine along with writer, Annalisa Merelli.

The assignment was to photograph women serving prison time who lived with their children inside the Tihar Jail - wasn't very easy because of the access and the time of day that ensured that most women were at 'work' along with the fact that we were asked to leave not too long after we got there. Some of the stories were chilling, most of the women we spoke to were doing prison time for the murder of a husband or an in-law.

Cause when we've taken 'too many pictures' its time for fun!

In November 2011 I was a part of an incredible crew of photographers who worked with the children of Anjali House in association with the Angkor Photo Festival. This was my third year in Cambodia and second year as tutor of the kids photo workshop - and what a grand time! More then the kids learning from us - I think there is a lot that each of us had to learn from the kids.

On the last day of the workshop the kids had taken 'too many pictures' and wanted to have 'fun'...

© Mansi Midha