Street art is something that has always captured my interest for a whole host of reasons, the main being that it often brings to light injustice prevalent within society. Street artist Banksy is often known to point out blatant hypocrisy within British society with his provocative works of art. The portfolio of Chennai based photographer Sharad Haksar, though, brings the concept of street art to a whole new level.

Back in 2005, Haksar had various advertisements of famous Western brands painted in poor Indian cities and subsequently photographed them. I find that the photo with the Indian boy peeing on the wall to be the most interesting. It is so ironic how there is a huge ad for Nike, one of the biggest shoe manufacturers in the world, and the boy doesn’t even have a pair of shoes on. I’d like to believe that he is peeing on the wall in defiance of Nike and their exploitation of other third world nations.

Another photo features the ubiquitous Coca-Cola logo in front of a hand-powered water spigot. Here, Haksar wanted to point out the irony of widespread water shortages occuring in villages near Coke bottling plants. Later on, Haksar was threatened with a lawsuit from the soft drink giant to take down the ad, even though he had prior permission from them to put it up. Villagers eventually prevented one bottling plant from opening, holding protests on and off for nearly two years. This helped to showcase the growing animosity for Coke that is brewing in India. The locals simply want Coca-Cola to be responsible for the pollution and damage that they cause. Is that too much to ask?

The third photo features the IBM logo painted above some apples on a cart. The irony here is found in the rivalry between IBM and Apple. Clever.