Indian Surgeon sews up top photo prize

One man's race to change the face of India's poor *

Bendiksen's photos are of the free plastic surgery camps conducted Dr. Sharad Kumar Dicksheet in India.

By all accounts Dr. Dicksheet should be dead. Wheelchair-bound after a near-fatal car accident in 1978, the 72 year-old plastic surgeon has survived two massive heart attacks reducing his heart to 18% capacity, and a double bout with throat cancer that cost him his voice box, forcing him to speak through his food pipe. Twenty years ago, his doctors gave him two weeks to live. He could easily be forgiven if he wanted to cash in his hefty pension and retire to a life of leisure.

Instead, Dicksheet spends six months each year, and every penny of his retirement fund, conducting free plastic surgery camps remodelling, completely free of charge, the faces of poor, deformed Indians. And while he can't move more than a few steps without his wheelchair, the doctor is extremely quick and agile with his fingers.

Jonas Bendiksen's photographs are at times dramatic, and frequently distressing. The images show the transformation that Dr Dicksheet brings to the lives of patients who are unable to afford treatment elsewhere. In a country where a hair lip or facial deformity can result in a person being ostracised or worse, Dr Dicksheet is worshiped as a deity.

Patients travel hundreds of kilometres to his camps, arriving by foot, in rickshaws, on motor scooters loaded with whole families, and on groaning carts pulled by oxen with brightly painted horns. Thousands come with hopes for surgery, camping out in the dust beneath the mangroves outside the hospital gates. Priority goes to cleft lips, crossed eyes and large scars, but Dr Dicksheet's love of a good profile has him squeezing in nose jobs at the end of busy ten-hour days, "if the girl is otherwise a beauty."

In fact, he may be the fastest plastic surgeon in the world, often performing over 70 procedures in a single day. Last year, he completed 6,456 operations during the 30 camps across India, garnering himself a spot on the short list for the Nobel Peace Prize for the fifth year in a row.

To view the 'Changing the Face of India' portfolio click here.

About Jonas Bendiksen

Jonas Bendiksen was born in Norway in 1977. He has photographed extensively throughout the world, and was based in Moscow and the Russian Far East for two years.

His photo-essays have appeared in a number of publications, including The Sunday Times Magazine, The Independent On Sunday Review, Mother Jones, Le Monde 2, Max, Stern Magazine, Dagens Arbete and TANK. In 2001, he was invited to participate in the World Press Photo Masterclass in Rotterdam, and was recently chosen for Photo District News' "30 under 30" list. He was awarded the 2002 Nikon/Sunday Times Magazine Ian Parry Memorial Award earlier this year.

About the Ian Parry Memorial Fund

Ian Parry was a photojournalist who died while on assignment for The Sunday Times during the Romanian revolution in 1989. He was 24 years of age. The Ian Parry Memorial Fund was set up by The Sunday Times and his friends and family in order to build something positive from such a tragic death.

Each year the Ian Parry Memorial Fund holds a competition for young photographers who are either attending a full-time photographic course or are under 24. Entrants must submit examples of their work from their portfolio and a brief synopsis of a project they would undertake if they won. The prize is £1,500 worth of Nikon camera equipment, £1,000 from image.net and a further £1,500 towards their assignment. Metro Imaging also offers £500 worth of vouchers to the winner and £250 to those awarded Highly Commended and Commended.

To view the 'Changing the Face of India' portfolio click here.

* Reprinted with the kind permission of Laara Matsen.

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