Lights Out

Photographs in India by Desmond Roberts
2005. A village in Warangal district,Andhra Pradesh, India that I covered while doing a photoshoot for Oxfam International on the plight of cotton farmers. The picture of the electric pole is one of my favourites. When I stepped out of my vehicle some twenty villagers had surrounded me. And when I pointed my camera at the sky with the electric pole in the foreground, the villagers were talking among themselves – "He is taking this picture of the electric pole, he will probably show it to the Prime Minister in New Delhi". The street light has not been working for the last 15 years! The poor, tired of waiting for the 'trickle down effect', await intervention from the highest source.

Pete, Rahul and Dez