For the first time in a decade of photography, Naveenraj Gowthaman requested his subjects to show their backs to the camera. “They found this unusual,” says the Chennai-based wedding photographer, “But obliged after I assured them I will take a good picture.” This was in 2020, when he was covering the popular Koovagam Festival at Kallakurichi. The women he was shooting, most of them in their early twenties, had decorated their hair with flowers.
Naveenraj was rewarded with a vibrant photo that also told a story. This formed the first picture in what he would call the Poochoodal series. In the two years that followed, Naveenraj started taking special note of women’s hair done up with flowers, especially in rural Tamil Nadu. “I shot them wherever I went on assignments,” he says.
