History of Project
In August of 2003 I boarded a plane for Mumbai to photograph the Ganesh Chaturthi festival. I had found out about the festival from the cover image of Raghubir Singh’s book, Bombay. I saw the book in the store window of Aperture’s Gallery and bookshop in the mid 90s when it was located on 23rd street in New York. The photograph was a stunning image of a plaster-of-Paris statue of Ganesh being immersed into the Arabian Sea and it stayed fixed in my mind eye until I finally decided to experience the festival for myself.
My first few days in Mumbai were spent running around with an amazing photojournalist named Sudharak Olwe who was working for The Times of India at the time. Our journey began at the many workshops throughout the heart of Mumbai where the Ganesh idols were being completed. Later, we visited various neighborhoods where there were beautifully crafted Ganesh murti (idols) which would eventually be installed for public viewing in the evenings. As we passed through studio after studio, I stood with my mouth agape, amazed at level of creativity displayed in the sculptures and the sheer audacity of the size of the idols — some of which reached heights up to thirty-five feet. I saw idols that were completely covered by flowers, another with astroturf, and yet another adorned in dried fruit and nuts top to bottom.
During the ten-day festival, which culminates in a procession of the largest idols from all over the city before they are submerged in the Arabian Sea, I found myself confronted time and time again with a world that was so very different from my own. What struck me most was the palpable spirituality that pervades everything from the splendid to the squalid. The level of devotion to Lord Ganesha, as demonstrated by hours of chanting beginning before sunrise and on some days continuing long into the night, the morning and evening pujas performed to honor him, and the thousands of rupees spent on not only the idol, but the construction of the beautiful mandips moved me deeply. I was also touched by the unending warmth and hospitality of all the people I met who wanted to know my “good” name and then offered me prasad, a food offering given out during the Ganesh Festival.
One day while riding in a taxi to the photo lab to drop off film, we passed a series of makeshift homes made of tarps, which extended from the city wall to the edge of the sidewalk. In between two “houses” stood a 12-foot idol of Ganesh seated on top of Shiva, Ganesh’s father, that I had seen in the one of the most impressive workshops in Mumbai. I was so excited and surprised and impulsively yelled out “stop” and ran back to photograph the idol. Within three minutes I was surrounded by at least fifty people clearly proud of what their precious pooled rupees (totaling an equivalent of several thousand dollars) had purchased. Despite having no running water and sub-standard conditions, honoring their God was considered a privilege, not a sacrifice.
Though Ganesh is honored and loved throughout Mother India, nowhere else is he celebrated with the level of fervor and passion one witnesses in Mumbai. For those who want to be swept away in a sea of dancing, singing, praying and feel the true essence of Ganesh, this is a festival that needs to be experienced.