The street for many artists has been a playground of inspiration. It is energetic, pulsating a virtual mirror of the society of the geography of the space it inhabits. Vicky and Haran two young photographers who have been lovingly nurtured by the Salaam Balak trust have a shared history . Both have spent many hours on the street and the street also becomes the focus of their work. The street as a muse has been used by a number of artists whether it was English photographer Samuel Bourne in India or the French photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson who captured wonderful vignettes of street life and introduced the term ‘slice of life’. An early adopter of the 35 mm format camera, it was he who actually developed the genre of street photography . Cartier Bresson’s initial vocabulary became the beau ideal for many 20th century photographers. Both Vicky and Haran have used the technique of candid shots, straight photography. They have another common strain. Both are capturing the joyous energy of life on the street.

While Haran has some telling portraits in his work of young girls and boys who are seen in various streets simply celebrating the magic of living life with a youthful carefree bonhomie. Vicky at times can be a bit shy, almost diffident, but Haran being older with a couple of exhibitions behind him has a more flamboyant feel to his pictures. Both of them have a gaze which often pierces the heart of the viewer and humbles. To think that in the age of the greed of material consumption which besets contemporary India there are people who have almost none of the ‘luxuries’ of what money can buy, yet the joie de vivre persists. The set of images have a rare energy in every frame. Undoubtedly there is a raw appeal in the representation of the life on the street. There are no carefully constructed images, in fact it appears that often moments of time have been captured by a sheer click of the button. Young boys bathing, splashing in water, completely oblivious to the travails of the every day are immensely evocative as is the portrait of the young girl who gazes back at you quizzically. Vicky and Haran provide vignettes of poignant moments, of intensely personal tender pictures .

	Dr. Alka Pande Curator

Dr Alka Pande is currently Consultant Arts Advisor and Curator of the Visual Arts Gallery at the India Habitat Centre in New Delhi & Art Consultant Religare Arts Initiative. She was awarded the Chevalier dans l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government. She is also the recipient of the Charles Wallace Award. Dr Pande has completed her post-doctoral studies in critical art theory from Goldsmith College, University of London after two postgraduate degrees.

Dr Alka Pande is a prolific writer on Indology and art history and is the author of several well-acclaimed books. Her next book deals with Shringara: Eternal Beauty. Dr.Pande has been responsible for curating several significant and perceptive exhibitions in India and abroad, and given a name to some of the most upcoming and influential artists, photographers and sculptors.

The Artists:
	HARAN KUMAR

HARAN was 11 years old when he ran away from his home in W Bengal. He became a permanent resident of New Delhi Railway Station. Life between the fast tracks was challenging & there were times when his spirit was shaken by the hard life, before he was spotted by the Salaam Baalak Trust an NGO for street children. Overnight, fortunes changed. He was given regular meals, a place to stay and, most importantly, an education.

“In 2001 an international photography workshop changed my life. Each of us was given a roll of film and a camera and asked to shoot whatever we liked. I choose “Street Life*. I wanted to portray, through my photographs, the dreams, desires and aspirations of people who lived on the streets. It was a life I had led. A life that changed my inner personality and my outer perspective. In December 2004 an exhibition of my photographs was held at India Habitat center in Delhi.” Haran

He received the Nirman award for excellence in photography in 2005. Since then he has been to Amsterdam to distribute awards to photographers, Italy for UNITED COLOUR OF BENETTON Photography Scholarship & Manchester (UK) for an International Photographer seminar.

He now works as a freelance photographer with National& International Magazines, News Papers & Advertising & Photo agencies.

	VICKY ROY

Vicky Roy was born in 1987 in the small town of Purulia, West Bengal. He ran away from home at the age of 11 for Delhi, to realize his dream of a better life. He was picked up by Salaam Baalak Trust an NGO for street children, where he flourished through hard work and perseverance. He has received training in professional photography and has interned under Dixie Benjamin, a British photographer. He has also assisted a fashion photographer besides working on documentaries and for various organizations such as Delhi Tourism and Tehelka.

In 2007, he organized his debut solo exhibition titled “Street Dream” at the India Habitat Centre. He has and continues to take part in numerous domestic and overseas exhibitions.

Vicky has been mentored by leading photographers like: Bharat Sikka, Prabhudodas Gupta, Anay Mann and Tanya Dasgupta. He has been chosen by the Stuttgart, Germany based Maybach Family Foundation (MFF) for their mentorship program through which he will be mentored by photographer Joe Woolhead and will work on the photo-documentation of the reconstruction of the world trade center in New York. This is a six-month residency program and is scheduled to begin in February 2009.