© Raghu Rai, Burial of Unknown Child, 1994. Bhopal Gas Tragedy.
I don’t know when or where I saw this image. The only memory I could think of or maybe I am just placing it in my head is watching a documentary on Bhopal Gas Tragedy1. In that documentary, they were showing horrifying images of that day and what followed from the gas leak. The Magnum Photos2 photographer Raghu Rai’s images were shown all throughout the documentary. And, from that collection of images, I saw the image you are seeing above.
This heartwrenching three elements picture of sand and rocks, a hand, and a face of an unknown baby is talking so much and gives an abundance of information. That mysterious hand stroking the dirt off of the baby’s head. The open mouth of the baby is as if it is about to speak. Those black eyes from the severe reaction of the highly toxic gases. The plastic debris on the top right-hand side gives the absolutely chaotic circumstance of that moment. The dirty grave gives a frame and leads your eyes to the baby. The image being black and white allows you to just focus on the turn of events happening to the families. It provided a tragically personal human touch to everybody who was watching. We know images from wars and tragedies have made huge impacts on a greater scale. I can ekphrasis3 this now but as a kid, it was just a sheer impact of it without knowing anything about photography.
This was the moment that pivoted me towards documentary photography when I started doing photography. I clearly remember my jaws dropped from this image because of the rawness of the image. For someone who thought about committing suicide every day for 2 years, gave me a sense that I could express myself and others’ pain through photographs. Even though I still did not decide to do photography because I did not know anything about it. I could not believe that you can show these high levels of a graphic image and actually make people, who are not personally affected by the tragedy, to make them understand and truly comprehend someone's suffering. Like the Saturn image, I kept looking at this image over and over again. Whenever I am stuck, I look at this image. It reminds me of why I photograph and why I will always keep photographing.
Known as India’s Cherynoble, the Bhopal Gas tragedy happened on the night of December 02, 1984. An accident at the Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal, India, released 30 tons of methyl isocyanate which is considered a highly toxic gas, along with other toxic gases. This plant was close to towns that housed 600,000 people. “The gases stayed low to the ground, causing victims’ throats and eyes to burn, inducing nausea, and many deaths. Estimates of the death toll vary from as few as 3,800 to as many as 16,000, but government figures now refer to an estimate of 15,000 killed over the years. Toxic material remains, and 30 years later, many of those who were exposed to the gas have given birth to physically and mentally disabled children.” - The Atlantic, Alan Taylor, December 02, 2014. https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2014/12/bhopal-the-worlds-worst-industrial-disaster-30-years-later/100864/
Magnum Photos Agency was founded in 1947, by the pioneers of photography - Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Capa, George Rodger, and David Seymour. It represents some of the world’s most respected photographers. It maintains the founding ideals of journalists, artists, and storytellers. Their statement states “Our photographers share a vision to chronicle world events, people, places and culture with a powerful narrative that defies convention, shatters the status quo, redefines history and transforms lives.”
The use of a detailed description of a work of visual art as a literary device.
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