I have stolen more faces than I have names
I was driving home when I came across a Durga Puja immersion taking place in the fading light. I stopped, took out my camera, and watched. There was the collective effort of carrying the idol into the water, a man standing alone at its edge, and finally, the goddess floating among the ripples. Three moments... Continue Reading →
A Durga Puja pandal is a place of worship, but it is also a place to gather, look, eat, meet people and take photographs. Over two visits, I found myself drawn less to the spectacle of the goddess than to the activity around her. Families posed before painted faces. Friends arranged themselves for selfies. Visitors... Continue Reading →
A small observation from my archive I didn't set out to make these photographs. They were made at different times, in different places and for different reasons. Some came from photographing people, some from photographing places of faith, some simply from walking around with a camera. When I made them, I didn't see them as... Continue Reading →
Rakhi is usually spoken about as a festival between brothers and sisters. But when I walked through the Rakhi stalls, what I kept seeing was something slightly different. Women. Women choosing.Women looking.Women comparing colors and designs.Women standing behind curtains of thread and beads, moving through the crowded stalls with children, family and strangers around them.... Continue Reading →
I spent a day at the feast of St. Mary's Basilica in Bangalore, not as a participant but as a visitor. I walked the streets around the church, stood in the crowds, and watched the festival happen around me — families arriving packed into trucks, women in matching saris waiting for hours, vendors doing business... Continue Reading →
Busy market. Too many people, too much noise. I saw this mother with her hand resting on her son's head, keeping him close. She wasn't looking at him. It was just automatic—her palm there while she walked or stood or waited. This is not posed. Her hand just stayed. The red nails, the bangles, the... Continue Reading →
I was visiting a remote temple when, quite unexpectedly, a group of Hindu priests arrived. They arrived in a quiet tide of white, filling the small temple doorway without a sound.I had my camera with me, and what followed was something I had not anticipated seeing that day. They immediately began paying their respects to... Continue Reading →
Street photography isn't about watching from safety; it’s about standing close enough to feel the friction of a crowd. At the water’s edge, two figures anchored the frame—their backs turned, their attention pulled entirely toward the horizon. They gave the composition its quiet structure. The photograph, though, belongs to the intrusive profile cutting into the... Continue Reading →
I have always been drawn to places where people gather around something that is deeply rooted in their lives. The akhara is one of those places. There is very little separation between the body, the earth and the activity here. The wrestlers train in the mud, fight, rest, watch one another and repeat the same... Continue Reading →