Photowali Didi

One Saturday morning in Calcutta, India, Sarkar encountered a group of ladies doing their laundry and photographed them. A few days later, she returned to give them prints. Thrilled, they invited her into their homes to take more pictures. And so it went for months and Sarkar became known as “Photowali Didi”, "the sister with the photos." Sarkar's poetic, haunting images and brilliant prose about her neighbors of the Calcutta basti depict her subjects with grace and beauty.

Buku Sarkar is a photographer and writer who has grown up between Calcutta and New York. She mostly writes fiction although her first screenplay is due to go into production in 2020. Her writing and her photographs have appeared in various magazines and journals including NYRB, N+1, Threepenny Review, Humble Arts Foundation and the NYT.