Magdalena Bagrianow is a Polish-born portrait photographer based in the United Kingdom who travels with her camera to places where people still live close to old trades, festivals and family traditions. This gallery brings together portraits she made mostly in and around Pushkar, a small pilgrimage town in the Indian state of Rajasthan, with a few frames from elsewhere in India and one from Oman.
Many of her subjects belong to two Rajasthani communities: the Kalbelia, a nomadic group famous for their serpent-inspired dance, and the Bhopa, families of priest-singers who perform sacred stories. Others are holy men, camel traders, herders and children she met in the lanes and on the fairgrounds. She often photographs people where she finds them, outside a family tent or in a crowded street, so the background tells part of the story.
Below, each photograph is paired with a short note on who or what it shows and why the setting matters. We have kept the names and details the photographer supplied, and added background on the places and communities. A face can show light, texture and expression, but it cannot tell us everything about a person's life, so the captions stay with what is known.
You can follow more of her work on Instagram.
Pushkar: the town behind most of these portraits
Pushkar lies about 10 km north-west of Ajmer and is one of the oldest towns in India. It wraps around a sacred lake lined with roughly 52 ghats, or bathing steps, and is home to one of the very few temples dedicated to Brahma, the Hindu creator god. Because of its religious status, meat, eggs and alcohol are banned in town.
Once a year, around the full moon of the Hindu month of Kartik (October or November), Pushkar hosts one of India's largest camel, horse and cattle fairs. Herders arrive from across the desert, pilgrims come to bathe in the lake, and performers, traders and photographers fill the dunes on the edge of town. The fair alone draws well over 200,000 visitors, and most of the portraits below were made in that crowded, dusty, colourful week.
Kalbelia portraits: Suman, Sagina and their families
This is Suman, a young Kalbelia woman photographed on the Pushkar fairgrounds. The Kalbelia are a nomadic community of the Thar Desert, recognised in India as a Scheduled Tribe, and their women are known for dances in swirling black skirts embroidered in red and silver. Suman appears several times in this series, which suggests the photographer spent time with her and her family.
Suman again, this time framed more closely at the annual fair. Kalbelia women often wear heavy silver jewellery and bold ornament, and costume details can signal family and community. A second portrait of the same person lets us see how light and pose change the mood of a face.
A third portrait of Suman at the fair. Traditionally the Kalbelia were snake catchers who carried cobras from village to village and traded in venom, and they revere the snake as sacred. India's Wildlife Protection Act of 1972 made that trade illegal, and many families turned to music and dance for income.
Sagina, a Kalbelia girl, dancing on the fairgrounds. The original caption paired the image with the line "Forget your troubles and dance", from Bob Marley's song "Them Belly Full (But We Hungry)". Kalbelia dance imitates the movement of a serpent, with fast spins that speed up as the drums and the pungi, a gourd wind instrument, build in tempo. In 2010 UNESCO added Kalbelia folk songs and dances of Rajasthan to its list of Intangible Cultural Heritage.
A Kalbelia girl holding her baby sister, photographed on the outskirts of Pushkar. Older siblings in nomadic and semi-nomadic families often help care for younger children while parents work or perform. Because performance work depends on tourist seasons, many Kalbelia also herd animals or labour in fields for part of the year.
Another girl from the Kalbelia community, photographed close up. Bagrianow tends to fill the frame with the face and keep the background soft, which draws attention to eyes, jewellery and skin texture. It is a classic travel-portrait approach, and it works best when the subject has agreed to be photographed and looks straight into the lens, as here.
A younger Kalbelia girl. Children in the community usually learn the dance and songs by watching and joining in from an early age, which is one reason the tradition has survived without formal schools. The style has also spread well beyond Rajasthan through festivals and recordings.
A Kalbelia girl at the fair. Embroidered fabrics, mirrorwork and bangles like these are part of everyday festival dress and are also sold at the handicraft stalls that line the fairgrounds, where rural families shop for clothing, textiles and jewellery.
Bhopa portraits: Papu, Mamtu and Maya
Papu and her daughter Mamtu, from a Bhopa family. The photographer noted that both are widely admired for their looks in the area. The Bhopa are priest-singers of Rajasthani folk deities who traditionally perform at night in front of a phad, a long painted scroll that tells the story of a hero-god such as Pabuji and serves as a portable temple.
Mamtu, whose green eyes made this one of the most striking frames in the series. In Bhopa performances women have a defined role: the bhopi, often the performer's wife, holds an oil lamp near the part of the scroll being sung about and sings some sections herself.
Maya, a girl from a Bhopa family. Phad performances were traditionally commissioned by villagers in times of illness or misfortune and could last until early morning. Today some Bhopa families also perform for visitors at fairs and in tourist towns like Pushkar.
A Bhopa girl photographed on the edge of Pushkar, away from the fair crowds. Many visiting families camp in tents on the town's outskirts during the fair season, and portraits made there tend to feel calmer than those taken in the main fairground.
Holy men and costumed performers
A sadhu, or Hindu holy man, in the streets of Pushkar. Sadhus renounce ordinary family and working life to pursue spiritual liberation, usually owning very little and travelling between temples and pilgrimage sites. Pilgrimage towns like Pushkar attract many of them, especially during the fair.
Another sadhu photographed in Pushkar. Markings on the forehead often indicate a sect: three horizontal lines usually signal devotion to Shiva, while vertical marks are associated with followers of Vishnu. Saffron or orange clothing signals renunciation.
A third portrait of a sadhu in town. Many holy men live on alms, and some in busy tourist spots also accept money for photographs. Asking before raising a camera, and offering something in return when it is expected, is good practice in places like this.
A small boy dressed as Lord Shiva, collecting coins from passers-by in Pushkar while his mother watched nearby. Dressing children and adults as gods and goddesses is a common sight at Hindu festivals, and many people see giving a small offering as bringing good luck.
A performer dressed as a Hindu goddess, offering blessings to locals and tourists in exchange for money. The photographer described the performer as a man in women's dress. Costumed devotional performers like this are part of the street life of pilgrimage towns, and dressing as a deity is a long-standing form of popular performance in India.
A boy with a dead cobra draped around his neck, photographed at the Galtaji "Monkey Temple" near Jaipur. Displaying snakes for tips is an old roadside trade in Rajasthan, although India's 1972 wildlife law made catching and keeping snakes such as cobras illegal. We show the image blurred by default because of the dead animal.
Traders, herders and elders
An older Rajasthani woman photographed in a Pushkar street. Deep lines, heavy jewellery and a bright head covering are typical of rural Rajasthani dress, and close portraits like this one rely on soft side light to bring out texture.
An elderly herder on a cold morning at the camel fair. Desert nights in November can be surprisingly chilly, and herders who sleep beside their animals on the dunes wrap themselves in shawls until the sun is up. Early morning is also when photographers find the softest light on the fairground.
A camel trader at the annual fair. Large turbans in bright colours are a signature of Rajasthani men, and the style and colour can hint at region, community or occasion. Trading at Pushkar includes camels, horses, cattle, sheep and goats.
Another camel trader. Camel races open the fair, and the animals are groomed, decorated and sometimes shaved in patterns to catch a buyer's eye. For many herding families, a good sale here supports them for much of the year.
A herder standing among his camels. This wider frame shows the scale of the fair, where thousands of animals gather on the sand. Over recent decades the number of camels traded has reportedly fallen as motor vehicles have replaced them for transport and farm work, while the tourist side of the event has grown.
Children and families on the fairground
A young boy from a nomadic family on the Pushkar fairgrounds. Children are everywhere at the fair, helping with animals, selling small items or simply watching the crowds. Their direct gaze into the camera is part of what makes this series feel personal.
A little Rajasthani girl photographed in a Pushkar street. Kohl-lined eyes, which can be seen on many children here, are a traditional custom in parts of South Asia, often linked to beliefs about protection from the evil eye.
A Rajasthani baby boy at the fairgrounds. Whole families travel to the fair together, and it doubles as a social gathering where relatives meet, marriages are discussed and news is shared.
A mother and her son outside their shelter on the Pushkar fairgrounds. The pairing of a parent's weathered face with a child's makes this one of the most tender images in the collection.
Four sisters gathered in front of their family tent. Group portraits like this take patience, because everyone has to settle at the same moment. Tents like the one behind them form temporary villages on the dunes during the fair.
Beyond Pushkar: Agra and Muscat
The Taj Mahal in Agra on a foggy morning. Built by the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan as a mausoleum for his wife Mumtaz Mahal and largely completed in the mid-17th century, it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Winter fog along the Yamuna river often softens the white marble at dawn, as it does here.
A little girl photographed in the Mutrah Souq in Muscat, Oman, often described as one of the oldest markets in the Arab world. This is the only portrait in the gallery taken outside India, a reminder that the collection reflects the photographer's travels rather than one country alone.
Looking at portraits with care
Travel portraits invite us to feel close to strangers, and that is their strength. They also carry a risk: it is easy to treat a face as a symbol of a whole country or caste. The people here are individuals photographed at a particular moment, mostly during an exceptional week in one festival town, not a survey of India's 1.4 billion people.
The communities themselves are changing fast. Kalbelia dancers now tour international stages, Bhopa families adapt ancient performances for tourists, and the camel trade that built the Pushkar fair is shrinking. Portraits like these record that moment of change. If you enjoy this kind of work, see also Brian Dowling's Redhead Beauty: Portraits Across Countries.
Sources: Photographs by Magdalena Bagrianow; Wikipedia: Kalbelia; Wikipedia: Bhopa; Wikipedia: Pushkar; Wikipedia: Pushkar Camel Fair; Wikipedia: Sadhu.
those jeweled eyes!
ReplyDeleteAll those people have a biutifull eues! <3
ReplyDelete