Adorned with traditionally-made pieces from abacaxi’s SS23 collection, we slipped on toe shoes and explored the implications of tourism on the intertwined ecologies and economy of only one of India’s 28 vastly different states: Kerala. The Keralan coast and backwaters are a frequent retreat for tourists searching for stillness, tranquility, yoga, and Ayurveda.

How often do tourists consider the noise they bring to their destinations? These photos evoke stories of the legacies of tourism resulting in raw nuance, both beauty and strained ecologies. Shot on 35mm film, this series confronts a male and white supremacist gaze, and lends nourishment, comfort, and reprieve without harming or objectifying local ecologies or communities.

Over the past few years, houseboat tours have placed immense strain on the waterways of Alleppey, Kerala. Beneath the peacefulness of the backwaters is petrol dumping and pollution from houseboat tours, depleting fish and water oxygen levels, contaminating locals’ water supply, stimulating algal blooms, and in turn, fracturing local economies dependent on healthy waterways and fish. In some canals, algae protects the entire ecosystem by growing so thick and webbed that the boats are blocked from entering. Beneath the backwaters, beyond a first glance, mother nature is sending signals.

Behind the images are efforts to find tender equilibrium with visiting our motherland: walking to the market for some fresh vegetables before supper, learning to climb a coconut tree for the first time, slicing fruits with a new auntie at the homestay before breakfast, switching on the water heater, and taking a bucket bath like the locals do and our ancestors did. With a ‘balti bath,’ you take and use exactly what is needed, and no more. The clothing too is created with regeneratively-grown fibers, no waste practices, ancestral craft, and is even inspired by the very same subtle, spontaneous joy and unmanicured magic of daily rituals we captured here.

— Published in Office Magazine, April 2023

Text by Chandni Amira Dhanoa, Nancy Uddin, Sheena Sood, Photography - Sheena Sood, Creative Direction - Sheena Sood, Chandni Amira

Styling - Sheena Sood, Chandni Amira Dhanoa, Fashion abacaxi, Model Chandni Amira Dhanoa, Assistant - Nancy Uddin