Astrada, World Press Photo award winner, goes beyond the ordinary

Chennai: Saddled on a Royal Enfield packed with the bare necessities, photographer Walter Astrada has ridden across 20 countries, travelling 38,000km, before landing in Chennai. Accustomed to lonely stretches of highways winding across mountains and running along rivers, the three-time World Press Photo award winner was caught in the city's infamous evening traffic for more than an hour.But Astrada has seen more of the country than its impatient traffic and choking snarls.
From 2009 to 2010, Astrada worked extensively on a `violence against women' project. From the symbolic to the straightforward, Astrada, through his lens, upheld the ugly truths of female foeticide and the preference for the male child in the country. And he is forthcoming in saying that not much has changed. “The statistics are the same, maybe worse. A lot of people are trying to change things by putting in new laws. But I think it's really up to society.To change things you need time,“ he says.
Unlike most western travellers who still see India as the `Orient' and portray it as `that colourful land of crowd and confusion', Astrada goes inside the home of the ordinary citizen.
But Astrada is aware that he too may be branded the archetypal `white' traveller showing all that is wrong in the `non-white' world. Browsing walterastrada.com, one is likely to find photographs of unhappy people in strife-torn countries, or in underdeveloped and developing nations.But Astrada says, “As journalists we need to show the bad aspects of society . We need to bring the topic out. If we don't show it, it looks like it's not happening. But now I am showing the brighter parts of life and the two will make the whole picture complete.“ Astrada attempts this in his latest work, which pans across Myanmar, by portraying the little joys of life. It is Extensively shot in black and white. Astrada says the technique is not for aesthetics but to eliminate the sense of being different that colour, the trigger of race-driven discrimination, evokes.
Born in Buenos Aires and based in Barcelona, Astrada, who plans to spend a year is south Asia, travels with a map but without an itinerary . Asked what he will do after that, he says with a smile, “I don't know.“
For now, as part of Chennai Photo Biennale, Astrada will give a talk at Goethe Institut in Nugambakkam on Saturday and hold an exhibition `The Journey' at Phoneix Market City in Velachery from March 2 to 6.