From football matches to quiet catch-ups with friends, a charity-led photography project is celebrating the many forms of companionship – and reminding us that even in the darkest times, no one is ever truly alone
Kushti wrestling is an ancient discipline – and a way of life. These wrestlers in Mumbai sit in a pit made of earth scooped from the Ganges and mixed with clay and ghee. Since boyhood, they have followed a simple routine of training, eating, sleeping and competing: living, learning and training together at an akhara, a boarding house meets gymnasium.
The men lead a near monastic existence, adhering to celibacy, vegetarianism and teetotalism, until they retire when they reach their mid-30s. “This is linked with religious practice and symbolises respect for the Earth and a connection to one’s roots,” explains Jim Fenwick, the photographer behind the shot. “It’s a demonstration of humility and grounding before engaging in a physical contest.”
Fenwick submitted the photo to a photography campaign run by Suicide&Co, a national charity supporting people bereaved by suicide in the UK, and The Photography Movement, a collective that helps people to express their feelings and emotions through photography.
Always in Company is designed to remind people experiencing difficult times that even in the darkest of places there is hope, and that often comes in the form of the company of others.
Alongside other professional photographers to have submitted images – Rankin and Uli Weber among them – organisers would like to receive submissions from members of the public, on what company means to them. Suicide&Co’s co-founder Amelia Wrighton said submissions ranged from images of people at festivals and football matches, to quiet catch-ups with friends, the embrace of a nurse in hospital and starlit skies: “And pets! So many pets. The many different submissions remind us that even in the midst of isolating pain and grief, we are always in company.”
Returning to the scene in Mumbai, Fenwick said: “The level of support and camaraderie amongst the wrestlers is incredible. Their life, always taking place in each other’s company, fosters the strongest of bonds, a brotherhood.”
See the full Always in Company online gallery at www.suicideandco.org/always-in-company
Main image: Jim Fenwick
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