‘As individuals, we keep ourselves in cages, without connecting to others’: Jibak Bhattacharya’s best phone picture

On a break from work, the oncologist was struck by the sight of construction workers balancing on scaffolding for a new high-rise

There is no window in Jibak Bhattacharya’s consultation suite, in Kolkata’s Apollo multispeciality hospital. The oncologist took this photo in 2024 while on a break. “I often crave sunlight between seeing patients, so I step out on to the landing, which has a huge square glass window where you can enjoy the outside view,” he says. “Previously, it was unobstructed nature, but they are developing a high-rise now.”

Bhattacharya noticed the pattern made by three workers on the scaffolding, and how you could draw a line straight through it, as in noughts and crosses.

“I had an idea to show how we, as individuals, are bound and engaged in our small worlds,” he says. “Though we are part of a larger frame, we keep ourselves in small cages, without connecting to others.”

Bhattacharya applied minimal edits, “mostly cropping out some remaining green bushes to give a more claustrophobic look”.

Indian construction workers like these have a precarious existence. “As a kid, I wondered about the masons who put the concrete and cement so perfectly on the bricks. It is quite artistic, no doubt. But it is not well paid, and poverty is not something I romanticise. In my job, I have come across a lot of the social, financial and logistical problems these people have to face, and their suffering is unbearable at times. Nobody should suffer like that.”