A close bond with Nature and a deep appreciation of its beauty were integral to Shaju John’s formative years in Kerala. A childhood in a village with wooded groves, revelling in the pristine waters of nearby lakes and rivers, and savouring wholesome fare from the family’s fields, were the high points of Shaju’s life, inspiring his passion for painting. Moving to the cities later for a career in the visual arts, especially in photography, was in itself a cultural shift. But an assignment to cover migratory birds at the Pallikaranai Marshland, near Chennai, came as a rude shock. The spectacular beauty of the wetland’s natural wilderness, juxtaposed with the huge mounds of acrid, smoking garbage polluting the atmosphere for miles, made Shaju resolve to consistently create awareness of the need to save this precious habitat. The documentation of the marshland over 20 years is a highlight of the Projects featured here.

The other personal project presented here, driven by Shaju’s own mission as a long-time advocate for protecting the environment, is the rejuvenation of a degraded water body, the Perungudi Lake, by a small community of like-minded people in the neighbourhood where Shaju lives.

Aside from these projects that he initiated, Shaju was commissioned by both government and non-government agencies to undertake comprehensive visual documentation of various schemes and issues, which he did between his stints at a media house. The most impactful among these is the visual coverage of people living with HIV (PLHIV). This work, supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, took Shaju across five States and resulted in an exclusive and comprehensive documentation, the very first of its kind, spanning almost 12 months.

The other four Projects showcased here comprise the photographic documentation of key schemes of the Tamil Nadu Government. These are: The Kalaignar Kapittu Thittam, a health insurance scheme launched in collaboration with Star Health & Allied Insurance to provide people from low-income and unorganised groups free treatment for serious ailments at empanelled Government and private hospitals; Green Homes, an initiative to provide solar-powered dwellings to people in the rural areas; The National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, launched in Tamil Nadu in 2006, which provided a safety net to the poorest of the poor; and an Animal Husbandry Scheme that funds livestock breeding activity to make people self-reliant and improve village economies.