Photographing "the other" and how we feel about it?
I spent December and January of last year travelling through Southern India. I got a sample of both sides of this debate there. I was intrigued by Indians and wanted to take their photographs. I was engulfed in new places, new cultures, new landscapes and new people and I wanted to photograph it all.
But did I feel guilty? - sometimes yes sometimes no!! I don't like to intrude onto people's privacy, but I do love to photograph people. Its a catch 22!
Indians are not aware of personal space - with a sub-continent of more than 1 billion, there is not much room for that. To my mind, they had no problem, just sitting and staring at us or taking photographs of us. In fact they would come right up to you for a proper good look. I had a couple of encounters of seeing an Indian (normally male) pointing the camera in my direction, thinking he was trying to photograph the scene behind me, I would stand to one side - but the camera followed me, I side stepped again and again the camera followed me! There was no mistaking what he was trying to do. To them, we were "the other" and they had no qualms in photographing us - no matter what we thought.
But I chose my situations when to photograph - I had to feel comfortable in my surroundings and feel that I wasn't intruding. Here's some of the shots I took from the first couple of weeks of the trip!!
I spent December and January of last year travelling through Southern India. I got a sample of both sides of this debate there. I was intrigued by Indians and wanted to take their photographs. I was engulfed in new places, new cultures, new landscapes and new people and I wanted to photograph it all.
But did I feel guilty? - sometimes yes sometimes no!! I don't like to intrude onto people's privacy, but I do love to photograph people. Its a catch 22!
Indians are not aware of personal space - with a sub-continent of more than 1 billion, there is not much room for that. To my mind, they had no problem, just sitting and staring at us or taking photographs of us. In fact they would come right up to you for a proper good look. I had a couple of encounters of seeing an Indian (normally male) pointing the camera in my direction, thinking he was trying to photograph the scene behind me, I would stand to one side - but the camera followed me, I side stepped again and again the camera followed me! There was no mistaking what he was trying to do. To them, we were "the other" and they had no qualms in photographing us - no matter what we thought.
But I chose my situations when to photograph - I had to feel comfortable in my surroundings and feel that I wasn't intruding. Here's some of the shots I took from the first couple of weeks of the trip!!
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| Cricket in a Mumbai Park on a Sunday afternoon |
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| Street Sellers in Panjim |
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| Beach Sellers in Candolim |
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| Sunset in Candolim |
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