PHOTOGRAPHED BY ALEX MASI (ALEXMASI.COM); BRI HAMMOND; TONY CENICOLA/THE NEW YORK TIMES/HEADPRESS;COURTESY OF JUDE KELLY. TEXT BY ALLEY PASCOE.ˆMATTERSINDIA.COM. *ON AVERAGE (IN THE US TAXES VARY BY STATE)8686 marieclaire.com.au
A storm is brewing in Bhopal, central
India. It’s a sticky summer day in
August 2009 and the monsoon is
unusually late. When the sky finally
cracks and raindrops begin to fall,
you can feel the relief of the villagers.
Kids run and play in the puddles,
squealing and splashing. Poonam,
then six, sits in the mud and relishes
the deluge, the rain streaming down her
face. Spellbound, Italian photographer
Alex Masi captures the moment.
At the time, Masi didn’t realise how
special the image was. In fact, he hadn’t
even set out to photograph Poonam. The
rain interrupted him as he was taking
photos of Poonam’s brother Sachin, then
14, who suffered from leg paralysis after
drinking contaminated water and was
confined to a wheelchair.
It was over a year later that Masi
discovered his photo could change
Poonam and Sachin’s lives forever.
The image won a $6500 grant fromThe Photographers Giving Back Awards
in Sweden, and Masi set about using the
money to help the family out of poverty.
Until then, the family of seven had
lived in a shack made of mud and cow
dung. “The walls were falling down and
you couldn’t stand up inside,” recalls
Masi, who spent the first portion of the
grant building the family a home with a
toilet. He also bought Poonam’s father a
trolley so he could start a small business
selling vegetables on the street, earning
three times as much as he did as a
labourer. The remaining money went
to school fees and supplies for the
children. Poonam is now 14 and
can read and do basic maths.
“The family was very happy with
everything we did for them,” says Masi,
who also plans to help Poonam train for
a career in make-up artistry for Indian
weddings. “It made their lives much
easier and happier. They have hope for
the future and a new-found confidence.”MC FACT Almost half of Grade 5 students in India can’t do basic maths; more than half can’t read at Grade 2 level.ˆSTORM
IN A
LENS CAP
When Alex Masi photographed a young Indian girl revelling in
the rain, he didn’t know the shot would change both their livesPORTFOLIOMasi’s award-winning
photograph of Poonam
(below) funded a new home
and education for the young
girl’s family (on left).