When a Photograph Becomes a Testimony: Alessio Mamo’s 2011 Images of Dalit Survivors and the Work of PVCHR
Some photographs do more than document an event. They preserve a moment of dignity, testimony and collective memory. A series of photographs made in 2011 by Italian photojournalist Alessio Mamo captured such a moment in the work of the People’s Vigilance Committee on Human Rights (PVCHR) in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh.
The photographs show women, children and survivors of caste-based violence and police torture participating in an honour ceremony organised by PVCHR. They also record the public space created by survivors to speak about their experiences and to reclaim dignity.
It captures a community gathered together.
Behind the individual faces is a collective history of caste discrimination, social exclusion and violence. Yet the gathering also represents something different: recognition, solidarity and the restoration of dignity.
The language historically used to describe Dalit communities has often reduced people to their suffering. Human-rights documentation must do something more. It should allow people to appear as rights-holders, witnesses and agents of change.
This principle was central to PVCHR's work.
The honour ceremony as a public space
PVCHR developed a process in which survivors of torture and organised violence could narrate their experiences and eventually bring their testimony into a public community setting.
The public ceremony was not merely symbolic. It created an opportunity for the survivor's experience to be acknowledged by neighbours, community members and representatives of wider society.
Academic work examining PVCHR's testimonial approach has described the honour ceremony as the public culmination of a process through which survivors articulate their experiences and bring their narratives into the community.
This approach connects healing, testimony and social transformation.
A survivor is not defined only by what happened to them. Through testimony, recognition and collective action, the survivor can become a participant in changing the conditions that allowed the violence to occur.
A Gate of Memory: Shri Shanti Kumar Singh, Freedom Fighter and Gandhian
Another photograph in this collection shows a black stone plaque installed at the entrance of a village facility. At first glance, it may appear to be an ordinary government development plaque. But for my family, this gate carries a much deeper meaning.
The inscription records the development work and identifies Shri Shanti Kumar Singh, my grandfather, as a freedom fighter. His name on this public structure is therefore not merely a historical reference—it is a part of our family's living memory.
My grandfather was a Gandhian and freedom fighter. For me, seeing his name preserved on a village gate creates a direct connection between the values he represented—freedom, public service, dignity, equality and commitment to ordinary people—and the work that our generation has continued through human-rights activism.
The gate has consequently become more than an entrance.
It is a gateway between generations.
His generation participated in the struggle for India's freedom. Later generations have continued to work for the meaning of freedom in everyday life: freedom from caste discrimination, violence, torture, exclusion and humiliation; freedom to speak; and the right of every person to live with dignity.
This is why the photograph is particularly meaningful to me. Alongside Alessio Mamo's photographs of Dalit women, children and survivors participating in a PVCHR honour ceremony, this image places the human-rights work of the present within a much longer personal and social history.
The black stone records a name.
The gate preserves a memory.
And the memory reminds us that freedom is not only an event in history—it is also an unfinished responsibility passed from one generation to another.
For me, Shri Shanti Kumar Singh's name on this gate represents that continuity: from the freedom movement and Gandhian public service to the continuing struggle for human rights and dignity.
Testimony, recognition and collective action
The photographs of the ceremony show people speaking, listening and participating.
In one image, I am addressing the gathering. In another, a survivor is being recognised publicly. The setting is simple: a temporary stage, microphones, cloth backdrops and community members seated together.
But the meaning is larger.
For many survivors, speaking publicly after experiencing violence can itself be an important act of reclaiming agency.
PVCHR's work developed testimonial practices in collaboration with the Rehabilitation and Research Centre for Torture Victims (RCT), Denmark. Contemporary accounts of PVCHR's work describe testimonial therapy and the subsequent honour ceremonies as part of a process connecting personal testimony with community-level recognition and mobilisation.
The ceremony transforms the location of the testimony. What may have previously been an isolated experience becomes part of the community's collective memory.
The photographer: Alessio Mamo
These photographs were made by Alessio Mamo, a Sicilian photographer based in Catania, Italy.
According to Mamo's biography, he studied chemistry before graduating in photography from the European Institute of Design in Rome in 2007. He began working in photojournalism in 2008, focusing on contemporary social, political and economic issues. His work has appeared in international publications including TIME, Newsweek, Le Monde, Der Spiegel, National Geographic and The Guardian.
His work has also focused extensively on displacement, migration and humanitarian crises. His biography notes his contributions to Médecins Sans Frontières and UNHCR, and records his World Press Photo recognitions in 2018 and 2020.
Mamo's work is represented internationally by Redux Pictures.
His LensCulture profile identifies The Damned of India among his projects, including work concerning communities and livelihoods in India.
Photography and human rights
Human-rights photography carries an ethical responsibility.
There is always a danger that photographs of marginalised communities can turn suffering into spectacle. A different approach is possible: photography can document voice, dignity, resistance and agency.
The 2011 photographs by Alessio Mamo are valuable precisely because they preserve more than individual faces. They preserve a moment in the history of a grassroots human-rights movement.
They show survivors not only as people who have suffered, but also as people who have gathered, spoken, listened, organised and received recognition from their community.
That distinction matters.
Remembering 2011 from 2026
Looking back from 2026, these photographs have acquired another significance.
They are now historical documents of a period when PVCHR was developing and expanding its approach to testimonial therapy, community mobilisation, anti-caste advocacy and the recognition of survivors of torture and organised violence.
The photographs remind us that social change is rarely captured in a single dramatic moment. It is built through meetings, testimonies, village gatherings, community leadership, public recognition and persistent efforts to make invisible experiences visible.
A photograph freezes time.
A testimony gives that time a voice.
And collective memory gives the testimony a future.
Photo credits and sources
Redux Pictures archive: Photo archive – Redux Pictures, image 14234165
Alessio Mamo – LensCulture: Alessio Mamo on LensCulture
The Damned of India – LensCulture: The Damned of India
Alessio Mamo – official website: About Alessio Mamo
Alessio Mamo – official portfolio: Alessio Mamo Photography
PVCHR: People's Vigilance Committee on Human Rights
The photographs remain the intellectual property of the photographer/rightsholder. They should be reproduced publicly only in accordance with the applicable copyright and licensing terms.
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