Mario Marino – ‘Kalbelia – The Forgotten Ones’, India 2014/15

In the fall of 2014 and the spring of 2015, Mario Marino travelled to the north-western Indian state of Rajasthan. With the resulting series of images, Kalbelia – The Forgotten Ones, the photographer delves into the culture of the Sinti and Roma, the origins of which can be traced back to India. Known as Kalbelia in India, their position there – similar to that in Europe – is that of the bottom rung on the social ladder. Illiteracy, as well as the lack of access to fresh drinking water, is characteristic of the everyday life of Kalbelia children in Rajasthan. For them, domestic violence and begging are the order of the day. The simple physical and especially mental condition of Kalbelia children has burned deep in the photographer’s memory.

Mario Marino was born in 1967 in Austria and currently lives and works as a freelance photographer and artist in Germany. On his many travels throughout Europe, as well as to Africa, Cuba, India, Nepal and Mexico, Marion Marino has developed his own autonomous pictorial language. Sustained by a sense of empathy, his pictures provide the viewer with insights into the daily lives of those he portrays, as well as a profoundly touching inkling of their mental conditions.

In the last few years, his works have been exhibited in numerous national and international galleries and museums in, among other places, Amsterdam, Basle, Berlin, Bristol, Brussels, Cologne, Dubai, Edinburgh, Essen, Geneva, Miami and Munich. Publications on Mario Marino and his photos have appeared in, among other places, the following media: Artnet, BBC, the Berliner Morgenpost, the Berliner Zeitung, the British Journal of Photography, Dailyphotonews, the Evening Standard, Foto Magazine Edition, FotoHits, Foto Forum, the T.A.Z, The Telegraph, The Washington Post, The Guardian, National Geographic (‘Daily Dozen’), Photo Digitaal, Photo Magazine, PopMe Magazine, Profi Foto, Photonews, PhotoZoom Magazine, The Independent, The Wall Street Journal, Welt and Vogue.