SUGAR CANE HEROES portrait series
THIS IS NOT A MOVIE
This is not a character in the latest blockbuster, he is not “characterized” by the costume design department to look devastated and he does not have make up to appear with scars nor coming right out of the ashes of the previous controlled fire blazing of mixed gasoline and diesel the night before.
Ignacio Calleja chose to get inspired for this portrait photographic series from a text written by Mahatma Gandhi called “The Talisman”. In this photographic series Ignacio Calleja is trying to bring “the face of the poorest and weakest man whom you may have seen” to more audiences with the purpose of a much more felt reflexion about how the next “step you contemplate is going to be of any use” for “the hungry and spiritually starving millions”.
"I will give you a talisman. Whenever you are in doubt, or when the self becomes too much with you, apply the following test. Recall the face of the poorest and the weakest man [woman] whom you may have seen, and ask yourself, if the step you contemplate is going to be of any use to him [her]. Will he [she] gain anything by it? Will it restore him [her] to a control over his [her] own life and destiny? In other words, will it lead to swaraj [freedom] for the hungry and spiritually starving millions?
Then you will find your doubts and your self melt away."- One of the last notes left behind by Gandhi in 1948, expressing his deepest social thought.
Source: Mahatma Gandhi - The Last Phase, Vol. II (1958), p.65
Something special about this series:
In this series only the first picture shot of each fieldworker is shown because it´s in the first picture that they showed a more organic unconcealed look, on the second shot they changed and started to smile to show familiar expressions as if they only needed one photograph to feel comfortable with the photographic process they may have never ever experienced before.
