HUMAN STORIES
Photography project - commissioned by Indian Oil Corporation Ltd
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Life is determined by movement. Movement leads us to discovery, adventure and progress. I had been commissioned by Indian Oil Corporation Ltd as a documentary photographer, to tell the human stories that unfold at their retail outlets. Stories that fuel movement.
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My first memories of visiting a fuel station is with my father, when he would take me and my brother, in the bike to fill petrol. Our favorite moment was to see the numbers on the dispenser-machines go quickly from zero to the desired number.
To me, a fuel-station is one place where you can see the diversity of India at any point of time. There is no gender, economic or religious discrimination, everyone is the same. It was a delight to capture the emotions of the workers at the filling station. For them, filling fuel is a job that they do every day, but their interaction with different customers brings in a whole new atmosphere. I was lucky, to experience auto-rickshaw drivers singing songs as they waited in queues; the 'tough' truck-drivers being friendly with me; and once I got to witness an out-of-the-ordinary sight, men dressed as Spiderman and Deadpool.
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As I started visiting the stations regularly, I began liking it and I felt that morning was my favorite time to be there. It was always busy, with so many activities happening. It seemed like they were all a part of one big family, extremely cooperative with each other. .
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Seeing a girl with a camera in a fuel-station was an unusual sight for many, but as time went by, they got familiar and comfortable with me. Eventually, the staff began sharing their jokes and also their teas with me. I loved my time there, just because of the variety of people I got to see, and also because of the warmth of the staff. .
This photography-project, was mainly intended to discover and showcase the human side of a fueling station, commissioned by Indian Oil Corporation Ltd
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