Beautiful Photographs Of Life Inside Mumbai’s Dhobi Ghat

Vipul Prasad first picked up a camera while studying hotel management six years ago. “I unexpectedly started playing around with a digicam quite a bit; taking pictures of absurd things with really weird perspectives. I was always curious to know what everything looked like from up close—the micro world, “ he says. A year later, his father gifted him his first ever digital SLR and in 2012, Vipul made a trip to the Himalayas that would leave a particularly deep imprint upon him. A month after he returned, he quit his desk job and pursued photography full time—but not before taking a quick detour to a music festival in Nepal.

Vipul has been planning and shooting a series called INSIDE, which focuses on the charm of some of Mumbai’s old-school establishments. “My goal was to capture the essence of these places in the most aesthetic and appealing way by infusing beautiful colours and interesting details, capturing natural emotions and unfolding narratives to tell a unique story,” he says. When he received an e-mail invitation for a photo walk with Raconteur Walks through Dhobi Ghat, he knew it would fit perfectly with the theme of INSIDE. “When I’m shooting, I become extremely observant. Apart from the laundry mayhem, I observed the lifestyle of the dhobis—the environment they worked in, the way they went through their day, how they took care of the children running about—all while working hard. There are sections in there, with rows of small rooms not even big enough to lie down with your legs completely stretched out. I later discovered that those rooms were homes of dhobis and their families. I was completely appalled. I was under the impression that the dhobis come here in the morning, do their job and leave once their work is completed. But apparently, generations of dhobis have lived here, it’s a part of who they are.”

Through his series, Vipul’s choice of soft tones and edits give an ephemeral sense to a space that every Mumbaikar knows of, but rarely experiences; almost softening the immense hard work that these dhobis clearly put into their daily lives. Still, little details of life and love within its walls capture the kind of honesty that no photo narrative worth seeing is bereft of.
Scroll down to see Vipul’s images of Dhobi Ghat and his portrayal of an entire community’s daily existence.