What is freedom?
For Mumbai-based photographer and filmmaker Viraj Nayar, the answer is quite simple. It is not a grand symbolic gesture, not a wet, tri-coloured paper flag stuck in a car wiper for 24 hours, or a patriotic chant lost in the deafening howl of the monsoon winds. Freedom is a state of mind and a state of being without fear. It is a group of trans women — Shehnaz and her friends Sonam, Sanam, Saba, and Izna — catching the afternoon local to Marine Drive to enjoy the high tide with complete abandon, being baptised by the salt water of the Arabian Sea, dancing in the rain, singing old Bollywood songs, impervious to the oppressive glares of onlookers.
Shot over half an hour on 14th August 2022 — a day before the entire country would erupt into celebrations of freedom on Independence Day — on an afternoon in the middle of the Mumbai monsoon when waves leap up to fifteen feet high and hammer against the stoic tetrapods in some sort of kinetic frenzy, Nayar's photo series, aptly titled 'Freedom', captures the spirit of freedom in a riotous, rapturous expression of queer joy.
Although the Queer community has long been a part of public life in the Indian subcontinent — from queer-coded characters in ancient Hindu mythology to trusted and respected eunuchs in the Mughal 'zenana', or female quarters — such brazen, unapologetic expression of Queer joy and freedom remains rare in the country. Like Dayanita Singh wrote in the preface of her landmark photobook 'Myself Mona Ahmed', "when you work for the media, which tend to see India only as either exotic or disastrous, a story on eunuchs is a must, along with a story on prostitution, child labor, dowry deaths, and child marriage".
Popular media's obsession with such stories perpetuate narratives of Queer struggle, resistance, and resilience in the South Asian context at the risk of erasing any and all expressions of queer joy and freedom. These trauma narratives make it easy to credit Queer joy and liberation to the outward expressions of acceptance experienced within the confines of Pride parades, and make it harder to find in the small gaps between political crises and exclusion.
But Queer joy is different from Pride — in many ways, it is more radical, more poignant, and brings purpose to Queer lives. It is happiness against seemingly insurmountable odds, not solely confined to grand gestures of liberation or acts of resistance. It is self-expression that flourishes without judgment or limitations. Sometimes, it is found in the simplest moments, and in the simplest acts — like dancing in the rain with one's friends, or shaking off the rainwater from one's hair.
About the Artist:
Viraj Nayar is a Mumbai-based photographer and filmmaker. His work spans photojournalism, documentary, street, and fashion photography. For Viraj, photography is a means to connect and communicate with individuals and communities. He considers the role of the photographer to be one of a present and active witness to the entire gamut of the human experience.
Follow Viraj Nayar here.
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