Location: India, North Karnataka, Yadgir.
Credit: S J Hemant Kumar
Initiative: CLARE Program (FCDO)
Project: Climate Change Local Adaptations Pathways
Story: This photograph was taken in northern Karnataka, India, in July 2025, during fieldwork for a research project examining climate change, rural livelihoods, and migration. Much of this region is semi-arid and has historically been prone to drought. In recent years, however, communities have increasingly experienced erratic rainfall and extreme weather events, including episodes of intense flooding. These changes have made agriculture more uncertain and, for many households, less viable as a reliable source of income.
As a result, seasonal and long-term migration has become an important livelihood strategy. Many men, and sometimes entire families, move to Bengaluru and other urban centres to work in construction, manufacturing, and service-sector jobs. Our research seeks to better understand these migration pathways and the changing relationship between climate, work, and mobility.
During fieldwork in the region, we stopped at a pigeon pea (toor dal) field where a group of women agricultural labourers were working. After explaining the purpose of our study, we spent time speaking with them about their daily routines, work, and experiences of environmental and economic change. With their consent, we also photographed them as they worked.
This image captures a moment after one of those photographs had been taken. A colleague is showing the image on her camera screen to one of the women. The woman’s expression, part curiosity, perhaps even surprise, creates a moment of exchange.
For me, this photograph speaks to an often-overlooked aspect of climate research: relationships. The image reminds us that research is not only about observing communities but also about engaging with them. In that brief moment around a camera screen, the act of documentation becomes a dialogue. The woman is no longer only the subject of a photograph; she becomes a participant in the process of seeing, interpreting, and sharing her own story.