CNN
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Photographer Keerthana Kunath continues to take pictures of heroic, muscular women in the idyllic landscapes of the state of Kerala on the southwestern coast of India. Amid foamy waves, palm fronds, or rocky outcrops, women curl their biceps, tense their quads, exaggerate their shoulders, and transform their gym clothes into gauze olives. dress or a feminine plaid bikini top and skirt.
However, in the London-based photographer’s home state of Kerala, bodybuilding remains taboo for women, who are generally expected to conform to traditional, feminine norms. After stumbling upon one of her competitors’ Instagram accounts, Kunas became fascinated with female bodybuilders who have dedicated their time to the sport, defying social conventions and often even the wishes of their families.
“Where we are, it’s not a very common thing,” she explained in a phone call to CNN. “I call this a ‘community’ because it’s still fairly new and only a handful of girls are participating.”
Only in recent years has an increasing number of female competitors across India achieved professional status with the sport’s governing body, the International Federation of Fitness and Bodybuilding. Deepika Choudhury, a former molecular biologist, became the first Indian woman to achieve this feat in 2016.
Initially, Kunath was interested in studying Kalaripayattu, a gender-neutral martial art that originated in Kerala, but she shifted her focus after realizing that women were focusing on bulking up instead. The bodybuilders who filmed as part of her series “Not What You Saw” didn’t know each other very well, but they got to know each other through social media and competitions.
“Every time I contacted each person and said I would take a picture of that person in front of you, they said, ‘Oh my God, I know her. Her body is amazing. “Her thighs are crazy,” she said with a laugh. “I felt like they all admired each other.”
For Bhumika Kumar, a 22-year-old from Kerala, Kochi Prefecture, training for a bodybuilding competition fulfilled her lifelong desire to become an athlete — a dream she wasn’t allowed to pursue as a child. , she told CNN. Whatsapp. Now a gold medalist in local competitions such as Miss Kerala and Miss Ernakulam, she transformed herself after what she describes as an inactive childhood.
“My parents didn’t allow me to go outside and play with other children.As a result, I wasn’t a very active child during my school days.I always lacked stamina and physical strength. ” she wrote.
As an adult, she found her gateway to exercise through YouTube workout videos and joined a gym “after a lot of fights with my family,” she said. She was drawn to competing professionally, but until a year ago she was torn about whether to pursue it. “I couldn’t stop thinking about being on stage,” she said. “Then I finally decided to give it a try and met my coach.”
Kumar is not the only woman in the series who felt that her relatives had a right to be involved in her personal choices. Kunas spoke thoroughly with each subject over the phone before meeting in person to better understand their journeys.
“A lot of them were under pressure from their families and relatives saying, ‘How are you going to send your daughter to this space where she’s working out her muscles?’ They’re showing off their bodies,” she said. said the subjects, recalling the kinds of comments they heard.
Female bodybuilders in Kerala are entering a high-pressure, male-dominated sport that requires daily effort under coaches accustomed to training primarily men. One of Kunas’s subjects, 25-year-old Sandra AS, has been training for four years and now also coaches aspiring bodybuilders. She hopes to break barriers for female competitors by earning a qualification card to compete on the international stage as a professional.
When visualizing this series, Kunath turned to the iconography of Indian goddesses that she encountered in her childhood. “I still remember seeing a poster of a goddess in front of a peaceful backdrop,” she recalled. Working with local stylist Elton John, Kunas moves away from the gym clothes, punchy, colorful swimsuits and direct lighting of the bodybuilding stage, using muted pastels and flowing fabrics to create I pursued a heroic portrait that is not typical.
“They are very muscular, strong, confident girls…but they still have a softness to them,” Kunas said. The photographer found that the bigger a bodybuilder got, the more she was treated as a “really strong and intimidating character,” but that wasn’t always the case.
Since the series’ inception, Kunas has also decided to support his subjects by entering them into contests and taking professional headshots to show “thank you” for participating in his work. I’ve been trying.
“They had to carve out this space for themselves,” she said. “I think these stories should be celebrated.”
