Transcript for the Piece Audio version of Born Into Brothels

Zana Briski can't tell you why she went to Calcutta or how she ended up teaching photography to the children of prostitutes. She doesn't really know. She's a dreamy kind of person who doesn't really plan very much.

ZB: It was really like being punched in the gut as soon as I walked into the red-light district. But on a deeper level, I really recognized the place

From that moment she wanted to take photos there. It took a year of almost daily visits to the neighborhood, and many conversations over cups of chai, before a brothel owner let Zana live in his house, which is what she really wanted - to immerse herself in the place.

ZB: was really like hell in many ways - there's drunk men everywhere - you can never tell what drunk men are going to do - I mean I felt threatened by them all the time - there are screaming matches - but so much beauty and so much laughter and so much joy.

I mean, most of the time it would smell bad - but then some woman would walk by with jasmine in her hair - and it's that extreme contrast that I tried to capture...

Many of Zana's photos are shadowy and mysterious - the women seem like ghosts - never quite completely visible - whether it's an image of watery footprints drying on a concrete floor - or this one...

ZB: it's a silhouette of a woman who has just been washing so she has some drops of water on her shoulder - but it's very dark, but its also very, very sensual - and that's one of the main feelings for me in the brothel.

In Zana's other photos, a group of kids joyfully leap across a narrow lane and a young girl looks expectantly out a taxi window. It's easy to see that the kids were one of the brightest parts of living in the brothels.

The kids would ask to look through her camera. And she was curious to see how they pictured their home, so she set up a small class, just eight kids, to teach them how to take photographs.

After the first class, the results stunned Zana

ZB: I have a reaction to one that Avijit took on his first ever roll of film - one of those street dogs running out of the frame - it's just so dynamic - it's a beautiful shape, it's also so India

The quality of the work kept Zana interested and the kids were having a great time, so they just kept doing it. Soon after she began filming her experience with them.

In the film, Gour, one of the boys in the class, talks about a photo his classmate (Shanti) took - it's of a pile of dirty dishes on a concrete floor, someone's shoes right among them.

Gour (from the film): nobody lives as filthily as we do in our country; where ever there are dirty plates we find shoes right next to them. That is why I like photography - I want to put across the behavior of man

I was curious if learning photography could really help these kids, so I spoke with art therapist, Savneet Talwar, who teaches at George Washington University

ST: Her work is very compelling. They may not otherwise ever have a chance to hold a camera - let alone taking pictures from a camera - and what she does is utilize this camera, as a lens for these children to explore themselves

Savneet thought that teaching the kids how to edit their photos was the strength of Zana's work.

ST: I love the way they bring in the art and everybody sits down - and they begin to show them how to look at a composition - what she does is give them a really powerful way of researching their own environment

ST: so when these kids are coming to this insight of - I don't really want to be here any more, I think its really coming from her work with these children.

Zana knew that the photography classes were great for the kids. But as she saw what they were experiencing on a daily basis, she became increasingly worried about leaving them in the brothels. There seemed to be a real limit to what art could do

ZB: I mean the kids are going to be abused - they girls are going to be raped - they're going to be forced into prostitution - education is their only hope to get out. None of the girls or the boys want to be there - the mothers don't want their kids going into that profession, but they also have no choice - and often they're pressured because they need money to survive.

Zana thought the best thing was to get them out of their homes and into nearby boarding schools, but Savneet Talwar, the art therapist, thinks that idea, while heartfelt, isn't quite right

ST: ...if I put them in a safe place and they can have a good education, they will be successful, they will be able to break the cycle - unfortunately as a psychotherapist I can say that's not necessarily true. There's always this intense need to be connected,

And I understand the education piece, but I want the art piece to continue - I feel that's where they will get their insight and that will sustain them

Savneet feels that Zana's success with the kids could have been much greater if she also worked directly with their mothers.

And Zana sees some truth in that. She's created a foundation to raise money for the kids' education. The plan is to build a nearby boarding school specifically for children of prostitutes, along with a support center for the mothers in the heart of the red light district.

The foundation has raised enough money so all the kids can go to school, but of the eight kids in the film, only a handful are. One girl has already "joined the line" as a prostitute - another is very close.

ZB: I'm constantly sending messages to say, you can leave, I will support you, I will pay for your education - I will do what ever it takes, but she's so trapped by tradition - she doesn't have freedom in her mind to make that choice now - all I can do is be there holding the door open and it's up to her to walk though it. So, umm - photography was incredible - and it wasn't enough...

...and running the foundation, isn't enough for Zana. After becoming a teacher, a social worker and a philanthropist, she's ready to get back to photography. She's giving the foundation to professionals and she's taking her camera to Namibia. Like her trip to India, she has no particular plan once she gets there.

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