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March 4, 2005 > Arts & Entertainment > ‘Brothels’ artfully captures children’s lives

‘Brothels’ artfully captures children’s lives

By Searcy Milam | Thresher staff

Photography may be the only medium in which it is feasible to start a project on prostitutes and turn it into a documentary about their children. American photographer Zana Briski began this venture and has now brought us the documentary Born Into Brothels.

As Briski reveals in the film, she began her stay in Calcutta with the intention of understanding and photographing the prostitutes’ experiences, but her attention quickly shifted to the children.

Briski assembles a class of seven children and begins by teaching them the fundamentals of photography — how to hold a camera, how to take a picture, when to use a flash. Gradually the class moves on to issues of composition, such as lighting, scenery and angles. The children, all about 10 years old, flourish in this creative environment and commit themselves to photography, not only as an art form, but also as a means of interpreting their own lives. For the first time, these children are able to look at their world from a different perspective and manipulate their surroundings. Their time with Briski, including field trips to the zoo and to the beach, proves both educational and inspirational as the children improve their artistic skills and as their admiration for “Zana Auntie” (Briski) grows.

At home, the children’s prostitute mothers work as often as they can, force the children to perform excessive chores and speak in a manner lewd and vulgar enough to make anyone feel uncomfortable. It is shocking to see the children’s disconnected, jaded responses to the actions and conversations taking place around them. The girls are expected to “join the line” of prostitution soon, and the boys’ futures are uncertain. The children are mature far beyond their years, staring the camera in the face and telling the audience that life is supposed to be hard, that nothing comes easy. And yet they flash such dynamic smiles and enjoy themselves so freely with Briski that one would never guess the hardships of their upbringing.

The film manipulates several modes of presentation, shifting from grainy, slow-motion footage of the red light district to still frames of the children’s photographs to polished film of scenes at the beach. This style is unsettling, but effective in juxtaposing the harrowing qualities of the brothels and the true beauty of the children’s photographs. In making this film, Briski chose to expose suffering in order to advocate change. By living with the families, teaching the children and instilling in her audience a true respect for them and their artistic capabilities, Briski escapes the danger of merely exploiting their lives and their suffering.

In the end, she is able to send one particularly talented boy named Avijct to an international photography conference in Amsterdam. She also secured places for several of the girls in local boarding schools, but only one remained enrolled at the time of the film’s release. She knows — and the film conveys a similar understanding — that only so much can be done.

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