Tracking transitions: an ethnographic visual study of the manual sand miners in Bihar, India

This ground-breaking visual essay encapsulates a 20-year ethnographic study on manual sand miners in Koilwar, Bihar, India, along the River Sone. Highlighting the participant perspective of the miners, this work is the result of a close collaboration between the miners and the researchers. It traces the evolving lifestyle patterns of manual sand miners in Koilwar – depicting the humble beginnings, a peak phase, and a subsequent gradual decline. It underscores the decline of a once-sustainable manual sand mining culture, sacrificed in the pursuit of advancing the national economy and infrastructure in a developing country like India. This independent study is a collaboration between Puneet Gupta, a photography researcher and faculty member and Ashish Gupta, a documentary photographer. Ashish started photographing sand miners in 2003, and Puneet joined in 2013.