Kalpesh Lathigra: Brides of Krishna

As promised in my post of yesterday, I bring you Kalpesh Lathigra a London-based freelance photographer, working for most of the United Kingdom's newspaper magazines, including the Sunday Times Magazine, and The Independent Magazine. His work ranges from photographic essays of the American Midwest to the aftermath of the Asian tsunami. However, the reason for his being included on this blog is his insightful photographic essay on the Indian widows, aptly entitled Brides of Krishna. His work in Vrindavan predates mine, and I wish I had seen it before I set out on my trip.

Paraphrased from Kalpesh's Brides of Krishna: " To be a poor widow in India in the 21st century is to still suffer social death. It (Vrindavan) has become a place of sanctuary, yet a more sinister tale of corruption and greed lies below the surface. In many ways the widows have become slaves to the ashrams without which they have no real way to survive."

An enormously talented and sensitive photographer, Kalpesh's Brides of Krishna is well worth visiting.

There are no shortcut links to Brides of Krishna since the website is Flash-based. Here's the link to his main website and you can navigate to his galleries.