Bonda

In the Bonda hills of Malkangiri district, in southern Odisha, India, the Bonda community lives among forested slopes, cultivated fields and small villages. The portraits in this series draw attention to the women’s distinctive adornment: layered bead necklaces, metal neck rings and woven headbands. Seen at close range, these are not simply markers of difference; they form part of how individuals present themselves and inhabit a shared visual tradition.

The photographs place these portraits alongside scenes of daily life. Women carry jackfruit along a forest path and work in flooded fields; an older woman adjusts a length of metal jewelry; a man sits among the rocks with a sickle in hand. The surrounding landscape is not a backdrop but part of the rhythms of work, movement and subsistence that shape the community’s life.

Elsewhere, an excavator cuts into a wooded hillside, while a truck carries baskets along a paved road. These images bring visible change into the same frame as portraits and customary practices. The series does not treat Bonda life as a remnant outside the present. It observes how identity is carried through the body, work and everyday encounters with a landscape that is itself changing.