Photo Gallery: Urban FabricThe Ghats or communal laundries formed by row upon row of concrete wash pens are each fitted with their own flogging stone and occupied by one Dhobi, washer. The clothes are washed in this murky water, hit against the stones, tossed into huge vats of boiling starch and gifted to the scorching sun to dry. The following day they are ironed and piled into neat bundles. Set in the bustling city of Mumbai, the Ghat, the most famous being the Saat Rasta near the Mahalaxshmi Station is where 200 dhobis and their families assemble to wash their lives away.
This hereditary profession is passed from generation to generation. Exploring the concept of Urban Change, this photographic study explores the issue of space, thematic across the urban landscape of India. How space has now become the most traded commodity which echoes the sentiments of all in this bustling city. Delving deeper we explore the relationship between the dhobi (washer) and the client; the world on the inside and that on the outside. Finally the underlying irony that they wash clothes in at best a filthy enclosure in an aim to keep a city clean and prosperous.
