People Of India: How to Photograph a Faithful Life in India
People of India undertaking ritual bathing by the Hooghly River, Kolkata, India.
As a photographer I choose to create photos that showcase, not what holds India back, but what unifies this incredible country and speaks to the wisdom and beauty Indian culture offers the rest of our world.
To successfully photograph the people of India you need to travel widely and immerse yourself in the culture, traditions and history of this unique and chaotic country. After all, life in India is a vibrant and evolving montage encompassing people from all walks of life and all levels of society.
I made the above photo as part of an ongoing project to photograph the people of India
I approached the devotees, with care and respect, and asked permission to make a quick photo while they were undertaking their ritual bathing by the banks of the Hooghly River in Kolkata.
Once permission was granted I moved backwards so as to include a view of the mighty Hooghly River and the famous Vivekananda Setu, also known as the Willingdon Bridge and the Bally Bridge, behind them.
As I was photographing into very bright light, I knew these good people would be silhouette in the photo.
As none of them were positioned in a particular graphic manner, it was obvious to me that a silhouette would not work.
To help tell the story that I was photographing Hindus, involved in an important religious ritual, I needed to ensure I could extract a reasonable amount of tone and color in their clothing.
Rather than using fill flash, I chose to expose the image in such a way that protected the highlights from burning out and then significantly lightened the shadows during post processing.
Making Beautiful Photos Of The People Of India
Despite the very best of intentions, it’s not always easy to follow the mission of making beautiful, life affirming photos of the people of India.
India is, for all intents and purposes, a land of contradictions.
Extraordinary landscapes, incredible temples and monuments, and beautiful people contrast with ingrained corruption, extremes of wealth and poverty, sectarian violence, and vestiges of the caste system.
Outside of 5-star tourist trips, traveling around India can be hard going. It’s certainly getting easier, since my first trip in 1988, but it’s still very challenging.
Photographers visiting India have to adapt to very different notions of personal space, particularly in larger cities and when attending major religious celebrations.
Have no doubt, experiencing a crowded, polluted and dusty Indian city can be a strain for the enthusiastic photographer working to create meaning rich and authentic photos.
Indeed, being able to maintain a reasonable state of mind, under such circumstances, can be challenging when you’re surrounded by the turmoil of daily life in many Indian cities.
During my first trips to India I managed to escape the touts, noise and pollution of larger Indian cities by getting out and spending as much time as I could in rural India.
For me that meant traveling to hill stations such as McLeod Ganj, now a suburb of Dharamshala, and Manali in the Himalayan foothills.
From as early as 1988 I also spent time in Kashmir and Ladakh.
Having previously traveled to Tibet, the landscape and people of Ladakh became like a second home to me, and I traveled back numerous time over the years.
Actually, I've journeyed to India four times since 1988.
My eldest sister, Maree, traveled their in the seventies and my parents, Mary and Fred, visited India many times from the late sixties onwards.
People of India: Life for the Poorest of the Poor
It's interesting, as an outsider, to watch this great cultural melting pot lurch forward into the modern world.
India is well on it's way to becoming one of the next economic tigers, yet many of the poorest people in India remain inadequately educated and economically disadvantaged.
A Hindu country, with more muslims than its neighbor Pakistan, India is the largest democracy in the world where powerless people, many of them women, could be considered as the country’s most significant demographic.
Challenges Making Photos in India
On my last visit I was perplexed to discover that a number of the nation’s most significant tourist sites had banned photography, due to the perception that photos can be used to help terrorists plan acts of terror.
Surely they’ve heard of Google Earth.
The notion of taking photos, to map a location, as part of planning a terrorist attack makes sense.
But why go pick on someone with a professional looking camera and tripod when, surely, that kind of information would be easier to gather, covertly, with a common mobile phone.
So much for stealth!
The best outcome I was able to achieve was to have an attendant follow me around and watch what I photographed.
And for that I had to pay a fee.
No problem, but is it really necessary, particularly when I’m so careful not to get in anyone’s way or impede anyone’s progress at the various historic and religious sites I visit.
But the worst of it, having to deal with the bureaucracy and painstaking negotiations required to achieve a reasonable outcome.
It’s frustrating and tiring and, on occasions, can take an hour or more to do so.
While it’s been great to photograph the people of India, making your way around and, sometimes, through the bureaucracy of this magnificent country is not for the faint-hearted.
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Is It Possible To Avoid The Chaos Of India?
India is a country where visitors, like you and me, may have just as much exposure to touts, thieves, illness and incredibly frustrating bureaucracy as they will to grand monuments, breathtaking landscapes and meetings with the odd yogin.
But for all the hassles, India remains a remarkable country. The mix of chaos, crowds, dust, heat, culture and color assaults the senses and broadens the mind.
Assuming, that is, you can cope with the maelstrom that sometimes surrounds you when interacting with the people of India.
India is exotic, but it can also be hard work. That is, unless you’re travelling 5-star. But, if you survive the chaos that is India, even as a tourist, you’ll have memories to last a lifetime.
I knew one guy who had a very lavish holiday in India, involving the very best hotels and sumptuous private accommodations.
Upon his return he quite openly told me that he hadn’t really been to India.
He hadn’t visited any temples or monuments, nor had he attended any religious sites or spent time wandering city streets or hiking along mountain trails.
What’s more, other than his hosts, the only local Indian people he’d spoken to where staff in some of India’s most exclusive hotels and resorts.
Have you heard the one about the man who couldn’t get a beer in a brewery?
Well my dear old friend managed a trip to one of our world’s most exotic, historic and culturally vibrant countries. And he returned without engaging with the people of India.
Given the population of India is estimated at around 1.5 billion people, I wouldn’t have thought that was possible.
If fairness, part of me would love to be indulged in such a lavish experience, even just once.
However, at the end of the day, I travel to create photos that speak to the beauty of our world and its people.
But to do that, you have to roll your sleeves up, get out and about and engage with local folk.
And, for me, that’s what travel photography is really about.
Smiling taxicab driver at rest in a backstreet of Kolkata, India.
Walk the Streets and Meet the People Of India
I was on just such a walk, along a Kolkata backstreet, late one warm, smoggy afternoon when I met and photographed this very amiable and friendly taxi driver.
Frankly, I was drawn to his kind-hearted nature and welcoming smile.
He was relaxing in the shade, in a line of other taxis when I first saw him.
Rather than ask him to stand in front of his taxi cab, where it was likely his fellow drivers would tease him, I decided to make use of the cab door, as a compositional device, to help lead the viewer's eye into the picture and towards the driver’s face.
The technique in question is known as a frame within a frame and it’s a very effective element of composition.
Life In India: Sometimes Color Just Gets In The Way
While it seems like a somewhat ridiculous proposition, it’s a fact that, sometimes, color can get in the way of a great photo.
And that fact is true, even in India, a country famous for the colorful clothing worn by many of its people.
As a case in point, think of the colors showcased so delightfully in an Indian saree.
Let’s look again at the portrait of a taxi driver in a Kolkata backstreet.
His taxicab was quite a bright yellow/orange color that produced a striking contrast with the aqua/blue colored shirt he was wearing.
But it was his face that was of prime importance to me, which is why I opted for the black and white rendering you see above.
By removing color from the photo the driver’s clothing and the rest of the environment play second fiddle to his face. And that, I’m sure you’ll agree, is how it should be.
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Life In India: Who Said Travel Was Supposed To Be Fun?
Outside of the very best hotels and the most extravagant tours, India is a very hard country in which to travel. It is getting better and, in years to come, there’ll be very little to complain about.
But, for now, we need to learn from the locals.
Remain calm and patient, and don’t let these hassles get the better of you. It’s all part of the travel experience.
When things are going badly for me I often turn to the person next to me, whether a fellow traveler or a local, and start up a conversation.
Doing so helps take my mind off my own physical or mental fatigue by concentrating my attention on someone else’s story.
Truly, it's in those chance meetings, often the moments between events, with genuine and honest folk that provide some of the most memorable highlights from my travels.
I don't think it's right to ask if it's worthwhile going to India. It's probably more appropriate to ask yourself whether you're up to it.
The fact is, outside of resort tourism, many people aren't.
We can't expect that life will be the same for us once we move outside of our own, everyday environment.
After all, that's why we travel.
From my own experience the notion of learning to bend like a reed in the wind was never more applicable than when traveling around India.
It’s all about pushing yourself out of your comfort zone.
I think it’s fair to say that, when it comes to photographing the people of India, the more you bend, the more you’ll benefit.
As I like to say, while you cannot always control what happens to you, you can control what you make of those experiences.
Ultimately, we all make our own reality.
Conversation in Maria Purem village, named after my mother, near Chennai, India.
Photographing the People Of India: Why do I Return?
So why do I return to India, again and again?
The fact is that photographing the people of India has been one of the great challenges and also one of the great joys of my life.
In my heart I know I’ve barely scratched the surface of what could been a long and profoundly important photography project.
But it’s hard to wed yourself to one country, particularly when our world offers so many amazing photography adventures.
I’m suddenly reminded of the notion of being good at a lot of things, while being a master of nothing.
But that’s okay because, in this case, I’m sure I’m better off to have sampled delightful experiences from all over the world than to have devoted all my time and resources returning to the same country, even one as magnificent as India.
Nonetheless, photographing life in India is a wonderful experience.
The resolute and patient way in which the people of India go about their lives, their genuine openness and the spirituality through which many of them approach life is truly inspiring.
I made the above photo of a Catholic nun, chatting with some local folk from Maria Purem, a tiny village named after my mother, Mary Guy.
As I understand it, Mary paid for the building of the village many years ago, as part of the charitable work she undertook in India.
The project was funded from her not-for-profit Indian craft, clothing and jewellery shop, Namaste, which she ran for 18 years, without a wage, in our hometown, Hamilton.
Given that humility, nonviolence, hard work and respect for the elderly are considered universal values in India, this peaceful setting seemed like a good place to make some photos.
Actually, the nun featured in this image was based at St Thomas Mount just a short drive away, in Chennai.
There’s a Catholic Cathedral and orphanage at the top of the mount and, back in the day, my mum also donated funds to the orphanage through her charity business.
The motivation behind this particular trip to India was to photograph some of the places my mum’s charitable works had impacted upon, and then to share those images with her grandchildren.
The idea being that, over time, they might appreciate her efforts and the tremendous difference each of us can make to the lives of others.
While I’m always happy to return home, photographing the people of India does connect me to the Human Condition in a particularly profound way.
I feel like I’ve lived a life, even after just a few weeks traveling and making photos in this incredible country.
India is definitely an education, one that has taught me the value of patience and helped me appreciate the importance of empathy and compassion.
And I certainly appreciate the modest life I have here in Australia, so much more after I return home from another India photography adventure.
The people of India have been good to me, providing opportunities to make really beautiful, life affirming images which I’m able to share with the world through this site.
Did you know that I have a simple, yet very powerful approach to meeting local people and photographing life in India.
By all means, visit the popular tourist spots. They’re incredible.
But the secret to creating really compelling people photos in India is to get away from all that hustle and bustle, and engage with local folk in quiet backstreets and more remote locales around the nation.
After all, authentic photos are a direct result of authentic experiences.
It’s one of the real joys of travel. Is it not?
