I dreamed I had a girl in my pocket

by Wendy Ewald

In the 2,000-year-old village of Vichya, in the state of Gujarat in northwestern India, Wendy Ewald photographed and taught twenty of the village's children. I Dreamed I Had a Girl in my Pocket is a record of her journey, a unique book in which words and images move on simultaneous planes. Ewald worked with the children to portray their families, friends, daily lives, and the sometimes secret stories of love, struggle, death, and bride-burning whispered by adults. The children's images are joined with Ewald's in an evocative narrative. Whether they attend school or work the fields, whether they are untouchables or of another caste, these rural children speak in eloquent voices and offer intimate glimpses of their lives. This small epic of an Indian village includes artifacts, and artworks, along with stories told by the children and other villagers, collected by Ewald. These stories, along with Ewald's portraits of the children, bear witness to a culture's first encounter with a camera