Photo series to narrate inspiring stories of 50 women from the city

But in reality, there are many women around us, braving the odds, rising above the situations and doing extraordinary things. To bring their stories to the limelight, city-based photographer Amar Ramesh is doing a photo series. “The idea behind the photo series is to bring out inspirational stories of women from the city and motivate youngsters. The younger generation needs to be inspired by people to whom they can relate, reach out to and connect on a personal note. I am documenting stories of 50 women from the city. I am asking them three questions – what’s their favourite word, one thing we can learn from their life journey and what’s their biggest lesson,” says Amar Ramesh.

After the city project, Amar plans to do similar series with women from north Chennai, Madurai and Coimbatore. “There are a lot of amazing women in Chennai who are doing some great work. But sometimes, their stories are not heard. It started as a portraiture project but in the process, it became something else. It is a magical experience to listen to the transforming stories of these women. I am excited to be sharing the stories in short formats on social media,” he adds.

The first woman to be featured in the photo series is documentary filmmaker Aparna Karthikeyan. “One of the memories I’ll carry from the shoot with her is when she mentioned an obvious fact that we overlook as working professionals every day — we are all benefiting in the society every day because of the inequalities that exist. Inequalities in wealth, education, knowledge and so many other things. We cannot ignore that fact and neither can we get out of that system. But what we can make sure to do is to not exploit those inequalities,” Amar notes.