A 21-day nationwide lockdown has been imposed in India from March 25, 2020, to try to halt the spread of the Covid-19 Pandemic. This has also brought transportation of goods in the country to a near halt – nearly 300000 trucks with a load worth USD 350 billion have been stranded on highways across India.
Chandan Kumar Yadav is one of those who have been stranded on National Highway 6, Uluberia, West Bengal, India. All these truckers have suffered a lot until the Union Ministry has finally eased the movement of trucks after 25 days.
I have synthesized the concepts of ‘Citizen Journalism’ and ‘Vernacular Photography' as a response to the shortcomings of traditional journalism during a nationwide lockdown in India. Entire remote collaboration with truckers was orchestrated over cross-platform messaging applications because I had no way to travel 2000 km to visit stranded truckers in person amidst the nationwide stringent lockdown. I have guided truckers to photograph their plights and created this visual narrative. The entire idea of Remote Storytelling along with incorporating the authentic voice of stranded truckers was to question the traditional journalism that apparently overlooks the potential of social media applications.