Delhi – An emperor’s empire, a politician’s dream, a town with ambition and rivalry but most of all a town with a heart
Delhi is steeped in character, culture and history. Centuries of history on which this country is built upon and majestic architectural monuments gives Delhi a unique attractive force.
My thirst for exploring cities with character is what makes Delhi one of my favourites.
Walking on the streets of Delhi connects with me with the heart of Delhi and this is a city that is all heart. Being the country’s capital, the buzz of the nation building is quite evident in the air. However, there is much more to this city. Old Delhi is an acquired taste. The crowds, lanes, colours, textures, smell of spices, and its secular culture can be a bit too much for a new comer, but once bitten, this is what you crave to come back to.
It is special thrill to capture majestic architecture of Delhi. These architectural wonders are over a hundred years old and have stood the test of time, buildings that stand evidence to the good the bad and the ugly that the city has seen. The newer buildings are draped in designer components boasting of development while standing head to head with their older counterparts channel their own inner beauty.
I love shooting Old Delhi in the late afternoons during summer and in early morning during the winter.
During the summers, Delhi gets very lazy in the afternoons, boys and teenagers play cricket in the empty streets while onlookers become reluctantly involved spectators.
Winters lend themselves to amazing early morning image. Scenes of people walking wrapped in colour shawls protecting themselves from the biting crowd and warming their palms with hot cups of chai as the lazy dawn breaks into an optimistic day.
The challenge of street photography is the uncertainty. The joy of capturing that perfect moment cannot be described. It is state of pure joy when all elements, the subject, light, texture fall perfectly in place.
Street photography is very alike to wildlife photography; with this I mean that the emotions of my subjects are very pure. These emotions tell the stories that are unwinding around us.
Street photography is an eclectic mix of capturing present as well as past stories, living subjects as well as the brick and stone subjects that give the city its personality.
Subtle expressions that convey deep meanings. The long wait of the roadside vendor, the impatient urgency of a commuter waiting for his bus, the pure joy of the children jumping in the rain. Making these seemingly ordinary routine moments into stories what makes a good street photographer.