Of dreams and childhood josh in Vicky Roy's b/w frames at Delhi exhibition Bachpan
What does it mean to grow up with nothing and still find joy? Vadehra Art Gallery invites viewers to ponder over it through a photo series titled Bachpan (childhood) by Vicky Roy.
The photographs, filled with laughter, are a fleeting magic of play of moods and emotions. They display the resilience of childhood shaped not by material comfort, but by imagination, community and survival. Vicky's lens captures children who find delight in the simplest things, even as they live in the shadow of poverty and displacement.
His work is inspired by his own humble beginnings. Originally from Purulia, West Bengal, he left home at the age of 11 and began working as a rag picker at the New Delhi Railway Station. His life took a pivotal turn when he was taken in by the Salaam Baalak Trust, a Delhi-based NGO supporting street children.
Reflecting on the time he spent playing with his friends in his village, the photographer says, 'We didn't need electronic gadgets. A ball made out of plastic was enough for us to play and have fun.' It is a sentiment that runs through much of his work: the idea that joy does not have to be bought but can be built from what is available.
Bachpan, developed over 16 years, documents children in both rural and urban parts of India, including Odisha, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Delhi, Maharashtra and West Bengal. The photographs show children creating games with discarded materials and forming a strong sense of community and deriving joy from what little they have. Bachpan evokes a sense of nostalgia for a simpler time and an awareness of childhoods that are prematurely cut short.
Vicky has also showcased photographs under series Janwaar, which were taken between 2015 and 2018. These shift the focus to a rural community in Panna district of Madhya Pradesh. Designed by his friend, Ulrike Reinhard, the series captures the transformation of a village after the creation of a skatepark, built to uplift children from the Adivasi and Yadav communities.
With no formal training, the children taught themselves to skate by falling, getting up, and trying again. 'The motivation behind developing such a park in a rural area was that these children have the resilience to get up after a fall and continue to push their boundaries,' Vicky says. Today, some of the children travel internationally, representing India in skating competitions across Europe and China.
Bachpan and Janwaar do not assert themselves loudly. There is no heavy-handed messaging in the 45 black-and-white frames. Vicky's photography resists spectacle. They stay close to the everyday acts of balancing on a skateboard, a pause in the middle of a game, a shared glance between friends.
The strength of Bachpan and Janwaar lies in their quiet specificity. By placing the two projects side by side, it becomes evident how environments—rural or urban, improvised or designed—shape the way children move, play and grow. There's no singular narrative of hardship here. Instead, Vicky offers parallel photographs of energy, resourcefulness and change.
By the time one exits the gallery, the question is not just about what these children lack, but about what they have made, how they have moved forward, and what new futures are already in motion.
Rhea Kapoor and Akhya Shriti
At Vadehra Art Gallery, D-53 Defence Colony; Till May 30; 10am to 6pm
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