DEPARTING SOULS

Departing Souls is a series on one of the famous and oldest cattle markets at Vaniyamkulam, in Kerala, India. The cattle are brought every Friday's from neighboring villages and also state. This has been an important market since centuries for trading cattle for domestic purposes and slaughter. This is an attempt to showcase the plight of the animals who are being sold for slaughter (mostly) and the limited time they have in this world. I wanted to create a surreal approach on the scene rather documenting the place. For this I experimented using camera techniques of slow shutter and flash to create the background blur while the subjects remain in focus. This creates an effect like the soul of the cattle being liberated as their yearning to escape this world.