Culmann

French photographer Olivier Culmann took pictures of people watching television around the world, from India to Morocco to Mexico.

Watching TV 2011

Olivier Culmann/Tendance Floue for The Wall Street Journal Mr. Pandey's verdict: "The pollution is at very, very dangerous level."

Cleaning the Holy Ganges 2010

Olivier Culmann/Tendance Floue for The Wall Street Journal Mr. Pandey's verdict: "The pollution is at very, very dangerous level."

Cleaning the Holy Ganges 2010

Olivier Culmann/Tendance Floue for The Wall Street Journal Hindus revere the river as "mother" and "goddess."

Cleaning the Holy Ganges 2010

Olivier Culmann/Tendance Floue for The Wall Street Journal In India, water-treatment facilities have been unable to keep up with the growth, often held back by a shortage of funds and other resources.

Cleaning the Holy Ganges 2010

Olivier Culmann/Tendance Floue for The Wall Street Journal Ten million liters of sewage will pass through a series of six specially-designed ponds where sunlight, gravity, bacteria and microalgae will clean the water.

Cleaning the Holy Ganges 2010

Olivier Culmann/Tendance Floue for The Wall Street Journal Veer Bhadra Mishra, a Hindu priest and hydraulics engineer in Varanasi, first proposed such a system 14 years ago.

Cleaning the Holy Ganges 2010

Olivier Culmann/Tendance Floue for The Wall Street Journal In the plan, 10.5 million gallons of sewage — 13% of the daily output from Varanasi's 1.5 million people — will be intercepted every day at the riverbank, and diverted.

Cleaning the Holy Ganges 2010

Olivier Culmann/Tendance Floue for The Wall Street Journal The water itself is, in many places, unsuitable for bathing.

Cleaning the Holy Ganges 2010

Olivier Culmann/Tendance Floue for The Wall Street Journal Treatment plants currently process only 45% of the 11 billion liters of sewage generated by 181 cities and towns along the Ganges and its tributaries every day.

Cleaning the Holy Ganges 2010