Ricky Gestro, Kashi Coal Workers (Student)

This set is from a larger body of work I captured and created as part of my Advanced Diploma of Photography Research project at Central Institute of technology in 2015. I travelled to Varanasi, India for a month long journey to look into the heart and soul of humanity and celebrate it. I’d got lost one day after walking north along the banks of Ganges River and discovered an area attached to Kashi railway station, the oldest train station in Varanasi, it was a coal yard. I was intrigued. I didn't visit it that day but I documented an overview of what I saw and photographed it. I went back three days later and snuck in through the back of the yard. I spent almost three hours amongst the workers who spoke little to no English and who misunderstood me often. They were loading coal from very long trains into trucks by hand. I joked and spoke with them as often as I could, I helped break up a few large coal clusters and even ate food with them all the while taking some portraits. It helped to laugh and get dirty, they really opened up. Some 100 workers are on the site on any given day and work in teams of 6-12 men. Many of them come from the neighbouring state of Bihar known for its low socioeconomic status and hardworking workforce. They set up camp in shacks next to the railway yard behind Kashi station and stay the duration of a month at a time. The hours are long the work is hard and the pay is little. We are talking about 4-5 trains per month, each with an average of 60 wagons and each wagon weighing in at around 70 tonnes. About 30+ trucks are to be loaded on a daily basis from the unloaded wagons for a daily wage of 70 Rupees ($1.50 AUD) and then distributed around Uttar Pradesh.

Images have been resized for web display, which may cause some loss of image quality. Note: Original high-resolution images are used for judging.