Capturing Amish way of life through lense

NEW DELHI: Clicking a photograph could get a 38-year-old Amish man excommunicated. A community of Christians distinguished by their extreme conservatism and suspicion of technology, the Amish chose to ignore the modern life. They use horse carriages for transport, draw ploughs on their own and shun automobiles, telephones, electricity as anybody who saw Witness (1985), the Peter Weir thriller starring Harrison Ford, would know.The `old order' followers reject even buttons and zips.
There was nothing to stop Vikrant Tunious, though.
Tunious, 38, who shot the 25 photographs on display at the American Centre till September 16, is primarily a fashion photographer. Having captured the likes of Cindy Crawford, Aishwarya Rai, Bipasha Basu, Yanni and Ricky Martin, Tunious turned his camera to the "Plain People,'' capturing Mrs John and Mrs Smith, who, in the photos, look exactly like they sound. He took the photos over a five-year period between 2005 and early 2010 and captured the Lancaster Pennsylvania Amish as they go about their daily lives: tending to their farms, dragging carts, gathering for church or milking cows.
The Amish are averse to photography; they follow the Biblical prohibition of graven images. "They don't have photos of their families and the tourists are advised not to photograph,'' says Tunious who had to develop close bonds with some of the families before he was allowed. The Amish also keep to themselves and stay away from the outside world. Tunious offered to help on the farm, bought their milk and eggs; "I'd take my family with me and explain my art and what I do,'' he says. He has three kids aged between six and one who helped a lot. "The Amish have huge families with 8-9 kids and grandparents live in the same house.''
But this group was not hardcore. Look close at the backs of the three "Amish women sitting in cattle corn village market'' you'll find they use zippers. A photo of an Amish auction even shows them with New Balance and Columbia shoes on. And they use automated milking equipment (most Indians are still working with their fingers) and refrigerators that they run on diesel. Predictably, there are lots of carts, women in calf-length skirts, aprons and bonnets, men and boys in straw hats and dark-wool pants held up by suspenders.
Kids are either in the dairy or working on the farm Amish kids stop going to school after eighth-grade; by then they'd have learnt everything to make a good Amish. For entertainment in the absence of music systems, televisions, radios, computers they swing on a tire suspended by chains. Tunious's photos are black and white. "Black and white tends to take you back in time. And they are called Plain People. Black and white is the most plain form of photography.''
For people who worship plainness and shun pride, the Amish have attracted a lot of attention. Witness (1985) is set and shot in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. There, the Amish are treated with sensitivity, their treatment at the hands of popular culture can also be brutal. Weird Al Yankovic, for example, has a devastating though undeniably funny lampoon, `Amish Paradise'. Tunious only wanted to tell a story.
"When somebody looks at America, they see corporate America. They don't know America also has people who live this way,'' he says. He documents the lives of those who are total antitheses of the Cindy Crawfords of the world. He takes pictures of Elishiba with her cart (cars and street lights just beyond the white fence that divides her world from the outside), Gideon with his root beer and John, Aaron and Mary in their barn. And there are portraits of Elem Happy and James Giddings, whoever they are.