One Woman's Campaign To Preserve Kolkata’s Memories In Polaroid

Even though today capturing a moment is as simple as clicking a button most of us probably have a dusty old box tucked safely away that contains our most treasured memories. But for many people across India digital or physical photographs are still a luxury, when every day you’re constantly teetering on the edge of the poverty line, amassing keepsakes doesn’t seem like such a high priority.

To Kolkata-born, New Jersey raised Bipasha Shom, this phenomenon has shaped her life for many years. As a teen when she used to visit her family in India Shom used to take pictures for anyone she met, “It was something I knew how to do, so that is what I offered,” she told BBC, “I felt that it was important for people to have a record of their lives. Imagine not having any photos of your wedding, your children, your parents.” These moments never left her and when she was interviewing the director of the movie “Siddharth’, they were revived. The film follows a man who is searching for his missing son even though he has no photographs to show people, this story touched Shom and took her back to the people she had met so many years ago.

In December 2015 she returned to India with her photographer friend, Julie Black Nichols and her husband, Chris Manley, an Emmy-nominated cinematographer and director of photography for hit TV series ‘Mad Men’ to continue the project she had begun so many years before. She contacted an executive at the Japanese company Fujifilm and pitched her idea for the #GivePhotos campaign, they agreed to provide her with 4 polaroid cameras and 1,000 prints to help her on her way.

Thus armed the trio hit the streets of Kolkata and the coastal town of Puri, during the four weeks they were there they gave out hundreds of photos. Any age and any event, they captured every instant for the people who would otherwise have lost those moments to the passage of time. Today this hugely successful campaign has evolved into a non-profit organisation and spread across the globe, photographers and volunteers are making it their goal to ensure that everyone has the ability to preserve and cherish their most valuable memories .

Check out their ongoing work here.