Girl with the String, a photo from Haryana, North

Photographer's Note

Two little girls frolicked around a mud hut. They looked like sisters, and would not have been more than 10 years of age. The mud hut structure is typical of rural West Bengal (my home state). The mask hanging on the outer wall is used for Chhau, a mask dance, performed in certain areas of West Bengal. Made of clay and paper, these maskes are produced by a particular group of people who have been engaged in this business for generations. The masks help the dancers to portray different characters for instance Gods, Goddesses, demons, monsters and animals like the lion, tiger, bear, monkey. Chhau was originally performed on the occasion of the sun Festival towards the end of the month of Chaitra (March-April) in Bengali Calendar. The festival continued for about one-and-a-half months till before the sowing season which indicates it was interlinked with the social and economic life of the Bengal farmer.

The girl was all attention as she fiddled with a rope. Seeing me taking her picture, she called her sister, they looked like twins to me. They giggled & burst out in laughter as if this was something funny. When I asked them in Bengali (chanced my luck actually), I could see a surprise on their faces..."Huh, He is a Bengali!!!" They said to each other with bemused expressions on their faces. Now it was my chance to smile back at them :-)

Picture taken in Surajkund Fair, held in the state of Haryana, a long way away from West Bengal…reason enough for me to feel nostalgic.

riclopes, patshoo, carper, robob, feather, ChrisJ, kiwi_explorer, emjleclercq, John_F_Kennedy, pierrefonds, Dpbours, pastadog, axiotea, jhm, adores, dareco, jafadabret heeft deze opmerking als nuttig gemarkeerd

Critiques | Translate

riclopes (35577) 2008-07-24 3:06

Nice story, Angshu. And excellent informative note, as usual. Love the mood of this original capture. The artwork details are fantastic and give strengh to the composition. Love the balance bettween the girl and the mask. What connects them is not a diagonal but that lovely white design around the door way. And the ladder. Strong light coming from the right - I wish I could see the other hand, but I understand the dificulties of that. The mud wall makes a great background and the textures are beautiful behind the ladder. A wonderful surprised image.
Friendly regards,
ricardo

patshoo (952) 2008-07-24 3:26

Beautiful portrait,Good style POV and made an attractive composition,Well control of light and color,Well sharpness through entire scene.Good work,TFS.

carper (96) 2008-07-24 3:46

a very nice photo Angshuman
a good pov, fine details and a very good ligth and colours, a good photojob I like it, have a nice day.
gr. jaap

aadilj (18102) 2008-07-24 4:11

There we cross our paths again. I just couldnt get an image out of this place although I tried hard! and you have done so well. I love your capture

baba_flies (8829) 2008-07-24 4:58

Hello Angshuman! Not only that she is cute but I find you chose well to have her in the lower part with the string going through and that you left some room for the upper part with the nice door painting and this beautiful mask. Sweet how she concentrates on her playing and maybe she thought you were funny with your camera and how it came that you would take her photo. But girls have their ways, I mean they know early that they are cute so she called her sister out :) What a nice catch, this is really good. Regards ... Barbara.

robob (3648) 2008-07-24 5:09

Hello Angshu,
Très très sympathique image !
J’aime beaucoup l’attitude toute naturelle de cette petite fille s’amusant avec ce bout de ficelle,
Très bonne lumière et excellente netteté,
Au plaisir,
Robert

somak_g (497) 2008-07-24 9:38

hi angshu,

a beautiful capture. diagonal compo of the two faces is interesting. nice textures brought together very well.

regards
somak

feather (51130) 2008-07-24 12:27

I like the way the little girl is pursing her lips, either whistling or contemplating her effect on you. The whole scene sees to fit together well with a good balance between the girl and the mask. Well done. I enjoyed the note too.
Kath

Morac (27725) 2008-07-24 15:05

Hello Angshuman!
Beautiful portrait.
The artwork details are fantastic and give strengh to the composition.
I like much the very natural attitude of this little girl having fun with this piece of string.
Regards
Marc

berek (50518) 2008-07-24 20:12

Hi Angshuman,
first thanks for good note my friend . successfully portrait with impressive background. best wishes.
Burak

ChrisJ (171888) 2008-07-24 21:29

Hello Angshuman

A superb daily life scene of the girl with the string. Excellent sharpness, color & graphism. I like the subtle diagonal, between the wall mask & girl. Tfs!

kiwi_explorer (12209) 2008-07-24 22:01

Hi Angshuman,
Nice capture and well composed too. The statue in the wall has a good balancing effect to the whole composition. Image quality and color sharpness is very good and so as clarity of details. The color saturation in the skin tone is a little too red .... but overall a very fine posting. As usual your notes are interesting to read. Well done! tfs and have a nice weekend.
Cheers,
Renier

batalay (41261) 2008-07-24 22:24

Hello Mr. B,

A dramatic little portrait of the young girl, and an engaging narrative to augment the package. Your remark to to them in Bengali reminded me of an experience I had many years ago when my wife and I, and my uncle and his wife were visiting the Blue Mosque in Turkey. My wife is a blue-eyed blond, and we we were all speaking in English, when a young boy approached us with an accordion like collection of postcards. He tried out his English, French, German... on us, trying to sell us his postcards. I answered him in English, "We're Turkish!" My message didn't register. He started out all over again, going through his assortment of languages, as he unfurled his accordion-like postcards. Again, I responded, "We're Turkish!" The boy looked at his mate, and commented, "Look at the tourists, they've learned three words of Turkish, and they're think they can fool us." I enjoyed the little discourse, and I bought his postcards.

Have a good weekend,

Bulent

emjleclercq (15778) 2008-07-24 22:51

So idea and the decoration around the door is beautifull. But as far as the string is concerned, I strongly believe you should have taken the full length of it. So the framing is not totally sucessfull here in my opinion.

All the best,

Emmanuel

Graal (103040) 2008-07-24 23:36

Hi Angshuman,
nice scene, fine composed image and caught moment. An interesting decorations and details. Good work. I like it.
Gr., Aleksander

John_F_Kennedy (43797) 2008-07-25 3:06

Here is another great picture of a child. You show us a good daily life scene. I like this intesting door with the white painting. Well done.
Best wishes,
Achim

pierrefonds (114628) 2008-07-25 4:27

Hi Angshuman,

A nice portrait of the child playing with a string, you did capture well her expression. The mask, the design around the door frame and the latter are assets to the composition. The details are clear and sharp. The quality of the light brings out the colors. Have a nice day.

Pierre

Dpbours (222) 2008-07-25 6:09

Hello Angshu,

I'm wondering why one gets strange visions when seeing a title about a girl with a string... Didn't see the thumbnail, since it was in my daily list of favourites. And I was thinking 'Photographing women in a string is nothing for Angshu!?'. And so I see, it's not a woman in a string, but a girl playing with a piece of string hahaha.

Good note as well. In my mind I can see the fun on the faces of the girls, just reading you note. Thanks for sharing this moment of happyness!!

Greetings,
Dennis

Bluejeans (64251) 2008-07-25 8:19

Ola Angshuman
Muito interessante a tua nota , gostei muito do enquadramento da tua foto com a rapariga a esticar o cordel ,a mascara pendurada na parede e muito bonita tem belos detalhes artísticos , parabéns!!!
Um abraço Gonçalo

pastadog (13111) 2008-07-25 13:07

Hi Angshu - first of all, nice colors and light and excellent exposure... I guess you wanted very much to include that attractive ornament on the wall on the extreme left, maybe it could have been worth another compo including her left hand and the full string. Overall a cute daily life work, congratulations, Daniel

Scharan (14144) 2008-07-25 15:19

Olá Angshu

Bonita foto, ótima luminosidade e detalhes interessantes...cores harmoniosas e gosto também da textura.
Parabéns!
GA
Vera

dvlazar (6662) 2008-07-25 19:08

Smomething different - composition wise. A little funny to see the girls head in the lower part of the frame like that, but at least it meant you could fit the other interesting things in the frame like the mask.
Nice earthy colors throughout.
Cheers!
Dave

axiotea (21651) 2008-07-25 22:13

Hello Angshu
love to see the traditional house and here the white decoration and the mask on the mud wall just look great. The girl seems to be very relax with you and very concentrated on what she is doing... A difficult light which you've handled quite well. Thanks for the interesting note!
Have a nice day
Marilyn
Finally it is raining in Goa but also there are many power cuts ;)

jhm (211736) 2008-07-26 1:45

Hello Angshu,

Very well composition with the mask to the left, and the child in the other corner.
Also the decoration above the door are very well.
Very well done, TFS.

Have a nice weekend,
John.

crckt (7222) 2008-07-26 16:44

Hi Angshumanda,
She is really cute and seems lost in her own little world. I like the "alpona" a lot too.
Thanks for sharing,
Shaeri

adores (46979) 2008-08-03 17:18

Hi Angshuman!
I almost missed this one! It's a very nice shot and also a different one. I like the way you framed it,especially the way you placed the little girl, forming a diagonal with the mask. The colours and sharpnes are great!

dareco (17136) 2008-08-06 0:47

This picture is so sweet and beautiful! I began to cry when I looked it it, as just today I recieved word that my beautiful little sponsored child in India was killed. She was crossing a busy street and was hit by a car. Your picture makes me think of her as she had just turned nine. Thank you.

jafadabret (56501) 2008-08-14 5:19

Angshu bonjour.
C'est encore un très beau portrait d'enfant que tu nous présentes. J'aime la composition avec le masque et la tête de l'enfant dans les angles opposés. La netteté et les couleurs sont là pour en faire une très belle photo.
Jacques