Life within a square

The Katha Collective is an Instagram-powered photo magazine that gives photographers a platform to document fascinating stories

It is a relatively empty compartment of a late night local train. The deep blue seats look forlorn in their emptiness, bare without their usual load of passengers. Among the handful of commuters is Shama. Despite the lateness of the hour, she looks immaculate in her short dress and makeup. She identifies herself as a transgender who works with her friends as a dancer at bars and private parties in Mumbai and sometimes as an extra in films. Two of her friends can be seen as well, with their bare backs facing the camera. To save time, they are changing outfits in the empty compartment as they rush from one assignment to another on an extremely busy night.

It is evocative photographs such as these that can be seen as part of Anushree Fadnavis' 'Train Diaries' series on the Katha Collective on Instagram, the online mobile photo-sharing service. Katha is an Indian collective of Instagrammers, creating short- and long-form photo essays exclusively with their phone cameras. "It's a first-of-its-kind concept. Never before has a photo magazine been powered by Instagram," says Hyderabad-based freelance photographer Harsha Vadlamani, who is considered the "spine" of the collective.

The idea behind the collective is to give photographers a platform to work on a topic that fascinates them and shoot with their smart phones. "Instead of 4 to 5 uploads a day, there will only be two and that too with minimal hashtags. Only one photographer's series will be uploaded in a month," says Ritesh Uttamchandani, curator-founder of the collective and Mumbai-based photographer with Open Magazine.

Also, instead of uploading the photos as soon they shoot them, the photographers often take a day or so to find a narrative in the pictures. "It just doesn't make sense to go into the interiors, for instance, take photos and then break to upload pictures and then shoot again. Also, if you are shooting a personal story, it will be rude to say, 'please, wait till I upload the pictures'," says Vadlamani. It's ironic, considering the collective is rooted in a photo sharing service known for its real time, "click-before-you-think" feeds. "We are going against the instant gratification idea and taking it slow," says Uttamchandani.

The photographers are all for experimenting with their mobile phones. "I used to be very wary of mobile photography but I am loving it now," says Zishaan Akbar Latif, a Noida-based freelance photographer. His series take place within the quadrangle of his colony in C Block, Sector 40 and focuses on the local istriwallah, the ubiquitous person who irons clothes for a fee. "The istriwallah and his family came to Noida 20 years ago from Hardoi district in Uttar Pradesh and have remained the only constant in this crazy, changing city of Noida. They have seen people change, topography change, attitudes change and families grow. And, yet they have stood the test of time," says Latif. It's interesting to see the photographs reflecting dynamics within the family itself, with the younger son, Aakash, looking a little repulsed by his parent's profession. "You can sort of see it on his face. He plays with the rest of the kids who don't care who his parents are, but he looks wary of the moment he is living in and doesn't seem to know where he is heading," explains Latif.

Fadnavis, whose 'Train Dairies' is the inaugural series on Katha's Instagram feed, feels that there are pros and cons of shooting with a phone. "You lose out on quality but it allows you great access into people's lives," she says. This young photojournalist, who works with Indus News Agency on local trains. "Locals are like second home to most of us who need to travel for two to three hours. These hours became extremely personal to me, almost like an extended family, as I could see the chit-chat, the bonding, the interactions among the women," she says.

Each photograph tells a unique story and depicts a unique mood, while bringing out nuances of what life is like in the city. For instance, there is a picture of Anita and Jaya, two women from the Koli community, saying a quiet prayer for a safe journey as the first train of the day rolls out of Virar. The duo travel every day on the 3.25 am train to Bhaucha Dhakka to buy fresh fish at wholesale prices. "It's tiring to see the skewed gender ratio in photojournalism and we are keen on having lots of women photographers come on board and contribute. That was one of the reasons why we started with this story. Also, the advent of ac trains will make these scenes obsolete, so we wanted to capture those," says Uttamchandani.

An upcoming series will feature photographs by Agartala-based photographer Arkadripta Chakraborty about life on the border. "The Northeast usually gets a raw deal when it comes to visual imagery. There are the same old subjects - from Irom Sharmila and Lou Majaw. No one even touches Tripura which as a magical equation with the border. Arka is also an integral part of Katha," adds Uttamchandani. The collective is just going to get bigger and better in the days to come. On the anvil are street interventions and participation in photo festivals such as the one in Delhi. "It's time to merge the old and the new and that's what we are doing," he says.

You can visit the collective at instagram.com/ katha_collective and www.facebook.com/ thekathacollective