Valparai is a small hill town in the Tamilnadu State, India. Located at 4500 feet above the sea level on top of the Anamalai Hills of the Western Ghats mountain ranges in peninsular India, it is home to a culturally distinct population hailing from Tamilnadu. The development of the area into a township began with the construction of roads and guest houses for a proposed visit of the Prince of Whales in 1875. With about 70,000 people and 20,000 households, the area is home mostly to agricultural laborers, cultivators, and minor industrialists.
I found this place as a typical sample of Tamil culture with a distinct Dravidian lineage. In this photo-documentary, I attempt to find and record typical signs of Tamil culture, lifestyle, language, traditions, politics, economy, and religion mostly as found on the walls, town corridors, households and market places. Included in this work is the intent of documenting the changing face of the one-and-a-half-century-old town with the late arrival of modernity.
