TITLE: God Never Talks. But the Devil Keeps Advertising

On the banks of Sipra River, Ujjain (India), ‘exorcism’ took a greater height, where in the name of religion, people were being beaten up ruthlessly during Kumbh Mela. Thousands of pilgrims had accumulated here in the name of pilgrimage. They had brought their relatives and friends to free them from evil spirits and the exorcists were violently beating up and ruthlessly hurting the so-called evil women, in exchange of money and valuables. Vimladevi was unable to bear a child, Jamuna was mentally retarded, Bindoo was marked as an evil spirit because she had problems in her menstrual cycle and many more who fell prey to these unkind acts of brutality. On the occasions where serious mental and physical attention was to be given to these patients, at least a lot of love and care, they were being struck with a knife until they bled, and were dragged to the river to free them from the spirits. The women were being hauled underneath the water, struck with knives and being dragged by holding their hair strands with the hope that they will be free from all sickness. The question thus arises “Who is actually sick? The tormentors or the tormented? “

AUTHOR: Debiprasad Mukherjee (India)

Debiprasad is an Indian freelance documentary photographer based out of Kolkata, India. He has graduated in Electrical Engineering & completed his post-graduation in Business Management. Though Debi is a Business Consultant by profession, but his strong passion for documentary photography & photojournalism made him travel to various countries like India, Australia, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, UAE, UK and USA. He strongly believes that as a documentary photographer, it is his responsibility to showcase the social changes and its impact on human race and he is committed to leverage photography as the most powerful tool to capture the social changes & behaviors across the globe over the years.His photographs have been published in many international magazines/websites e.g. Vogue Italia, National Geographic, F-Stop (USA), Rammajamma Images (Australia), Society of International Travel & Tourism Photographers (UK), Dodho Magazine (Spain), Fotoform Magazine (Germany), Life Force Magazine, Social Documentary Network, Positive, Monovisions, ViewFind, Private Photo Review, 121Clicks, Edge of Humanity etc. and exhibited globally like International Exhibition of Art & Photography at “Galerie Romain Rolland”, Indo-French Cultural Center, New Delhi (2015), Slovenia International Photographic Exhibition (2016), Plovdiv International Photo Festival Bulgaria (2016), The Search for Economic Justice Exhibition at University of Wisconsin La Crosse USA, Photography Group Exhibition “Portraiture” Serbia (2016), PONDY-ART 2016 – DRIVING FORCE Photography Exhibition, Pondicherry, India, Asian University for Women Bangladesh (2016), Photo Life – Art Hub Annual Exhibition Kolkata, India (2015), Instagram First Ever Photography Exhibition in India (2016), Spring Photo Festival Bardaf Slovakia (2016) etc.

He has received numerous honors like Neutral Density Photography Gold Star Award, , International Photographer of the Year Hon. Mention, Monochrome Awards, Photographic Society of America Gold Medal, United Photographers International Gold Medal, Photographic Society of Singapore Gold Medal, Fédération Internationale de l’Art Photographique Gold Medal, World Photo Hungary, International Union of Photographers Jury’s Choice Gold Medal Hong Kong, International Association of Art Photographers (IIAP) Gold Medal, Czech Federation of Art Photography Silver Medal, Diploma from Image Sans Frontiere France, Digital Photo Archive Silver Medal Ireland, Master of Light Silver Medal Bosnia, Zivko Janevski Bronze Medal and many honorable mentions/prizes from Ireland, Serbia, US, Singapore, UK, Argentina, Germany, Czech Republic, Croatia, Hong Kong, Ukrain, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Romania, Turkey, Armenia, Kyrgyzstan, Bosnia and Herzegovina & India.

He is also a winner of Nikon India ‪‎PowerYourClicks Photography Contest 2016, Fotoforum Award Menschen Germany, runner up in InterAction (alliance organization in Washington, D.C. of NGOs) 14th Annual Photo Contest for “Women Empowerment” 2016, Second prize winner in India Photography Award – Travel and a finalist of HIPA Award 2016. Debiprasad’s recent assignment includes reportage on life of railway platform children in India for an International NGO. Debiprasad strongly believes in the power of photography in changing people’s perspective towards social changes & issues. His background in business & economics always helped him to understand unequal relationship between technology & humanity and its impact on social & financial conflicts.