Monday 10 September 2007

A brief Passage in India

Pin It It is said you need a month to visit India and get a taste of it, and probably a lifetime to photograph it. Well, I only was going to be there for four days, and of that, I had a day on a bus and a few hours to capture some of the spirit of this amazing country. The rest of the time was business; meetings and functions.

It's called 'Incredible India' in the marketing material and that is in itself an understatement. Colour, contrasts, incredible poverty and extraordinary wealth. Tradition that is centuries old, modernity that has been borrowed from the West and given its own unique eastern flavour. Stunning colours, rich fabrics, spicy food, delicate beauty and faces lined with poverty.

I focused as much as I could on people to try and capture some of the diversity of some 1 billion people that live here. But the buildings and the small artifacts that are used in everyday life are absorbing and unique in every possible way.

These images are from a half hour while in transit on Juhu Beach in Mumbai and the rest are from Jaipur in Rajahstan. They say that you have to leave behind a pair of shoes in India to be sure that you will return. I was only told about this a few days later, so my shoes all came home with me, but I do hope that I get a chance to visit this incredible place again in my life. These few images taken over a few hours manage, I hope, to capture some of the sense of place that is India.

As is always the case, double-click on any image to get an enlarged view.

All Images Nikon D200, 18-200VR lens