Photowalks for The City
Not too long ago, our city did treat its own history like a classified document — privy but to a few.
In a city where taking photos of public buildings is dissuaded, a group of camera-toting locals have quietly turned walking into an act of archival resistance. Led by blogger and copywriter Chandrachoodan Gopalakrishnan—known online as CCG—Chennai’s photowalkers are reclaiming the city, one frame at a time.
Once a month, CCG leads devoted Chennaiites on a fun outing to shoot people and places in the city. The idea is to walk through a neighborhood and capture in pictures – the buildings, the people on the streets, and the very ethos of the place. Photowalkers also chat with long-time residents to learn the lore of the locality. At the end of the self-guided heritage walk, they post their digital snapshots on flickr.com
Chennai-based copy writer Chandrachoodan Gopalakrishnan, or CCG, as he is known in the blogosphere, pioneered photowalks in the city – walking expeditions through interesting parts of the city with a camera in hand. “Because I’m this guy who is obsessed with the city’s history, my routes are always through old Madras,” says this blogger. “The photowalks are a wonderful idea, and it’s not surprising how quickly they’ve drawn attention,” says Sharanya Manivannan, a critically acclaimed Chennai-born poet who joined the February walk.
The walks are egalitarian: it doesn’t matter if you’re carrying a camera phone or something with a zoom the length of your forearm—even those with no cameras are welcome. But Chennai photowalkers do run into surreal problems. “Photography is prevented in most places in the city because the authorities think we will sell our valuable secrets to foreign powers,” says CCG. While guards of monuments and public buildings are wary of this camera-toting group, they are also curious. They ask members of this Tamil speaking bunch if they are from Malaysia or Singapore. “In their books, only foreign tourists will photograph places like the LIC building.” Till the end of March, the group had been on five walks.
CCG mentions the Royapuram railway station with awe. “It’s a fantastic little place – rotting away, weeds overwhelming the tracks, and was the first ever station in South India.” Today, only suburban lines pass through. But here too, the police shooed the group away just as they got ready to click pictures. Ultimately, the very sights compensate for all the needless hostility – as do the local people — auto drivers and strangers who give us helpful directions when we are lost, says CCG.
Photography is not banned—like dissent, it’s discouraged. Nipped in the bud.
There is a certain strength in numbers. The social aspect of the photowalk makes it easier for the amateurs to indulge in their hobby. Otherwise, mustering enthusiasm is not easy at the end of a six-day workweek, says G.V. Balasubramanian, a 54-year-old banker. But once on the walking trail, we find we are learning photographic techniques and more about the city’s history from one another, he adds.
The walkers don’t only go looking for photogenic old buildings. One trip in the offing is an evening stroll down Mint Street. “This is to sample Seenabhai’s uthappam, Kakada Ramprasad’s badam milk, coffee at Arya Bhavan, and beeda from the corner shop,” says CCG. This culinary walk too has a history angle to it. “There is a rumor that an Arya Bhavan chef invented the Masala Dosa – I want to dig into the origins of this dish,” he says. The photowalkers have covered a lot of ground by picking places that offer promises historically and photographically. “I have never had to sit down with a map to plan a walk yet,” says CCG. Eventually, he hopes that these expeditions will be documented not just digitally, but in a coffee table book.
Someday, we may also go beyond the city and into other historically significant places in Tamil Nadu, says CCG. “And which place isn’t historical in this state?” he asks. Chandrachoodan is one of those rare people whose eyes, ears and heart remain attuned to his surroundings, no matter how familiar they become, says Manivannan. Plus, of course, he has this unique ability to inspire other Chennai-buffs to join him on intimate explorations of the city, this Pied piper with a camera. Some of the digital snapshots taken by this growing band of photowalkers make people— especially those who have moved away— fall in love with their old city all over again.
The images are not just visual records. A rusting railway station. A corner shop beeda shop. The LIC building at dusk. Each frame says: You were here once. You still belong. You can come back and explore your hometown again.
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