Alang is marked by dark undertones, enhanced by the presence of discarded ships waiting to be torn apart. Drawn to this town on the Gujarati coast by a pleasing combination of cheap labour and low environmental standards, the shipping industry has turned Alang into the world's biggest ship-breaking yard. Every week, passenger ships, car carriers and cargo ships weighing up to 40,000 tons arrive onto its shores to be torn apart.

Photographer Shovan Gandhi has been chronicling this activity for the past seven years. “The series of photographs has been inspired by architecture and the idea of scale in a comparative form,” said Gandhi. “These photographs specifically cover the activities that happen ashore.”

The breaking process, conducted completely by hand, is surprisingly quick: it takes only about two months. Every part of the ship is salvaged and is sold in second-hand markets or to associated industries. “After the life of a ship has been lived, it becomes useless and incongruous to its surroundings," Gandhi said. "The deconstruction process the ship allows it to be reborn in various forms.”

Gandhi will showcase his photographs at New Delhi's Max Mueller Bhawan later this month, as a part of an exhibition titled PIX: Habitat. This exhibition also features works of photographers like Valentino Bellini and Asmita Parlekar, among others.

Here are some of the images you can expect to see.






Shovan Gandhi will showcase his work at the Goethe-Institut/Max Mueller Bhavan, New Delhi, on May 9.