Archives for india photos category
Saturday January 4, 2003
Friday January 3, 2003
Colaba district, Bombay. I don't seem to be able to stop taking pictures of cute kids. I may have a problem.
Thursday January 2, 2003
Monday December 9, 2002
Thursday December 5, 2002
Wednesday December 4, 2002
Tuesday December 3, 2002
Monday November 12, 2001
I'm proud of this one -- not in a patriotic sorta way -- just that it looks like one of those nifty "photojournalism" shots that people get paid a lot of money for. Maybe I'll get some money for it someday.
Sunday November 11, 2001
I'm posting two more shots from Varanasi. Both taken the day after Holi.
One beat-to-hell Varanasi street dog.
Monday November 5, 2001
I spent all night trying to get my laptop LCD screen to look decent. That means the Adobe Gamma control panel for 7 hours. I'm shocked. Of course, this is nothing to write home about. I just feel like I need to say it: I'm all alone out here in tweakland. 7 hours.
Varanasi. I think this guy sells stuff to make paan. Or, he could be a regular candy store.
Saturday November 3, 2001
Saturday September 22, 2001
Friday September 21, 2001
Monday September 17, 2001
I'm going camping for a couple of days so this is it. Since I'll be gone I figured I'd put up two pictures today. It's against the rules and they're not even that different but each is special in it's own way I think.
I have two pictures of a guy looking into the sun setting on Chowpatty Beach in Bombay. I don't know which of them I like better. I think the top one because you can see his shirt and you gotta be able to see an Indian man's shirt. But then, the bottom one has a classic, no bullshit, punk rock kinda feel. He's looks a little bored or upset in the top one but in the bottom one it looks like he just farted. Heck. I don't know.
Sunday September 16, 2001
Saturday September 15, 2001
Friday September 14, 2001
Thursday September 13, 2001
Don't know where this is but I think it's in front of Dave Farsan near Babulnath Chowk. Bombay.
I just watched Gandhi for the first time since 1985. It was very moving and relevant. Gandhi was killed by a Hindu extremist who thought he was giving too much away to the Muslims during the shaping of independent India.
Indians today know almost nothing of Gandhi nor do they care. They learn about his political role and his philosophy is brushed aside as naiveté or extremism. While I was in India, I was very curious about this mass amnesia of the ideas of the father of their country. I lived on his street for a while. It's something similar to our society still playing the music of the late sixties on the radio all the time but the ideas that went along with it are derided old "hippy daydreams" -- naked, dirty failures of the "Age of Aquarius". They will say, "Gandhi is ours" but he is not theirs any more. I will not let them have him. They just want him, so when it's convenient, they can flash a cardboard cut-out of him to the world and say, "this is our great father, our ancient culture deserves your respect". This is the most disingenuous crap I can imagine. I could go on forever about all the conflicting and countercultural ideas that got Gandhi killed but I won't.
Sunday August 26, 2001
Friday August 24, 2001
This is Darjeeling. I'm not sure if this picture makes any sense to people who haven't been there. I walked through a hotel to get to the back patio so I could take this picture. A kid saw me trying to shoot the same thing from the street and said, "Hey, walk through here. Better view." Then he tried to sell me a sack of weed. I said, "Why aren't you in school."
I never figured out why they knock all the branches off the trees and leave only the tops. What is that? People scrounging for wood but they don't want to completely strip the tree so they leave the very top?
Thursday August 23, 2001
Wednesday August 22, 2001
These are Tony's proud parents. Brahmins. Mom's a school teacher and dad is a school administrator. They were very patient while a took a light reading off of them. I liked these folks a lot. They were much easier to get along with than their son and his friends. Maybe it was because we didn't share a language. They made me eat by myself. They put the food down on the floor and I ate it while they watched. Then dad went and then Tony and then mom.
Lookit dad. He looks all gruff but he's not. You can tell by mom's expression. He was just tired. How's that for motherfuckin dignity. They didn't have anything as nice as my leatherman for show-and-tell but godamn it, they had dignity. The walls are blue in Jodhpur.
Tuesday August 21, 2001
Odds Carraig, Calcutta.
Oh ... Sam. I've had the transport pool onto me ... You don't know anything about a personnel transporter gone missing do you?
A "personnel" transporter? They've got it wrong. I had a personal transporter. I'll do the paperwork tomorrow -
Monday August 20, 2001
Sunday August 19, 2001
David was reading and holding his hand in the air. It was swiveling atop his forearm. His voice dipped and his lungs pushed out exuberant but precise strings of words. We had been swept up, Sherry and me, and we listened to this evening's 5th hour of someone reading what they had written. But this hour was different from the previous four because the three of us had escaped to David's house in the Sunset and he was reading from his Toshiba Satellite 2135CSE. I was stoned. Sherry had her shoes off. David had hardened spit clacking in the corners of his mouth.
David had taken a likin' to us after I read my emails at a writing group. He offered to give us a ride to the indierock show we were going to. It was the wrong night for that show so we drove around and talked feverishly. It was just feverish talk about a bunch of shit. We shut The Philosopher's Stone down and missed beer 'o'clock at Safeway and we had to be real quiet when we got to his apartment. There was a guy sleeping in the living room. I was so stupid. I had my video camera with me but I didn't film the insides of his room. It was just as interesting as the back seat of his car. But I can't describe that either. I should have shot it while he wailed on about his film-nut hero driving back from a film festival. David went to New York today. Man, that was great. I was so stupid.
Pritha Murdeshwar. Funny, I got the same shot of Brian.
Friday August 10, 2001
A manipulative little merchant (or junior model) in Darjeeling.
Tuesday August 7, 2001
Monday August 6, 2001
Colaba, Bombay. Seems like I had to go there almost every day. I guess it's fitting that this festering shithole is the only thing most tourists see of Bombay.
Sunday July 22, 2001
Saturday July 21, 2001
Skinny little guys like this move most of the goods around Calcutta on their heads. There are thousands of them swarming the street all day and night.
Friday July 20, 2001
Thursday July 19, 2001
A boy painting oil lamps. Calcutta. That silver paint that he's applying with his bare hands is pretty deadly.
Wednesday July 18, 2001
Today I wrote a little FAQ about the video capabilities of the Sanyo VPC-SX550MD. I got it in the mail and have been geeking out for the last 15 hours on it. I think it's time to go to bed though. There's a good chance I'll be posting short films up here from now on. But For Now, more pictures of India.
The Calcutta Underground. Rush Hour. Amazing. Nothing like above ground. I'm not sure why it's not horrendously crowded like everything else in India. Have to check that out.
Tuesday July 17, 2001
Holi Cow. This is what you see on your way to the store to buy a handmade paper journal in Varanasi. If you have a QL17 GIII loaded with PJ400 this is what you take a picture of. I think I used F8.
Monday July 16, 2001
On my last day in Bombay I realized I didn't have any shots of the thing I looked at the most during my stay. The view from inside a Taxi.
Sunday July 15, 2001
Street Sleeper. Somewhere in India.
Saturday July 14, 2001
Friday July 13, 2001
I'd usually post just one picture but I can't figure out which I like better.
On the opposite bank of the Ganges. Varanasi.
Stickboy with fill flash. Hahaa.
Thursday July 12, 2001
You gotta get up at 4:30 am for this but....heck, you're in Varanasi. And there's garbage everywhere else you look.
Wednesday July 11, 2001
Sarnath, one bumpy rick ride down the road from Varanasi. This guy was probably a Hindu, but Hindus dig Sarnath too. Why? Sarnath Fully Rips.
Tuesday July 10, 2001
Duladeo Temple in Khajuraho, Madhya Pradesh, India. I almost got mugged while I was taking this picture. The only thug to really threaten me the whole time I was in India.
I had ridden out of town to on a bike to shoot these isolated temples. Now that I think about it, the guy was kinda funny. He was like, "I'm a very bad man. I'm a very baaad man." and this little kid beside him goes, "Yes, he just get out of prison." I acted as bored as possible and he just stood there staring at me. I had about 4000 dollars worth of camera equipment. I was like, "Hey, get out of my way, I'm trying to take a picture." but he wouldn't move. "Give your money. Give me Rupees." was all he said.
I shot my pictures and started to leave and he started grabbing my arm and I was shooing him away and I started to get scared. I got on my bike but he grabbed the handlebars and said, "You buy keychain." I said no because I don't buy stuff off bad men and then he started to get desperate, like he was going to cry, fiending like a junky. The keychain was a little metal contraption that depicted some erotic temple carving. You twiddle the handles and people moved like puppets and a guy slides his little brass dick into the back end of a cocksucker. I haggled him down to 30 Rupees for 2 and rode away.
Those Khajuraho hawkers were some of the saddest motherfuckers I've ever seen -- like mugwumps from Naked Lunch. A tourist season that lasts 4 months and they need to sell enough postcards to live on for a whole year. They can't farm or get a job. Turning Khajuraho into a "World Heritage Site" has turned the economy inside out. Flying a bunch of fat white people in every day has rotted their society to the core. Towards the end of the season (and my visit was during a particularly slow season) they get so desperate that they could probably squeeze a couple Rupees out of a lifelong Bombay beggar. Bletch. The temples are cool though.
Monday July 9, 2001
Sunday July 8, 2001
Saturday July 7, 2001
Friday July 6, 2001
if someone offers you some suger
you should eat it
This kid was right behind the Frooti salesman. I'd just climbed all over the waterfall with him and he was all wet.
Thursday July 5, 2001
no dancing
Sikkim. By the side of the road. There was a nice waterfall nearby. Kids playing and, thank god, Frooti. I was thirsty and sicker than a dog.
Wednesday July 4, 2001
loomed so large on the horizon
people thought my windows
were stars
This here's a monk kid. Sleeping. Sikkim. India. Sunshine. Top of a Mountain. No one around. You know. Just an average spring day in the Himalaya.
Tuesday July 3, 2001
I think I'm going to change my life. I've got up and sat in front of my computer in my underwear too many days in a row. I need some play excuse. Some fake diversion. Computer is not interesting as it used to be. I'm getting sick of photoshop. Maybe I'll finish off that Ghat movie.
This is Sarnath. The place where Buddha. Yes THE Buddha told everyone about the Eighfold Path. Or was it the Four Noble Truths? Eh, don't matter I suppose. This is the only religious spot I've ever been to that actually made me feel all "spiritual". That big stupa was actually built up in the 6th century, 800 years after the man sat and delivered. I've included 2 red-robed monks for visual reference.
I could swear I took this in Calcutta but I was there quite a few days after Holi. Anyhow, this guy's still covered in toxic dye. A fallen technicolor angel.
Monday July 2, 2001
Calcutta motherfucker! Sitting on the train platform. Watchin' this girl dressed in a western dress. She doesn't look very comfortable. Judging from the way she looks, she's probably a tough villager girl who never has to wear humiliating clothes like this. I'm 90% sure she's on her way to a wedding -- the most common reason for train travel in India it seems.
Sunday July 1, 2001
Varanasi, on my way down to Brahma Ghat. Red Monkey Man.
I'm not out of Cuba shots. Just got tired of them for a while.
Saturday June 30, 2001
Calcutta. Paan stains on the wall.
Ok, These are photos of India. I haven't been there in a while but I'm just getting around to "printing" these. Which means, scanning and photo-correcting and jpeging them into web files. In that sense, they're no different from the Cuba and England and SF photos I've been posting here. It's just that they're over a year old. This is the only place they exist however, since they're not included with my writings about India.
Like you care.
voyeurs of the world, give something back!
Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 2 | 3 | ||||
4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 |
18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 |
25 | 26 | 27 | 28 |
Search
Archives
- May 2006
- October 2005
- September 2005
- May 2005
- April 2005
- March 2005
- February 2005
- November 2003
- October 2003
- September 2003
- August 2003
- July 2003
- June 2003
- May 2003
- April 2003
- March 2003
- February 2003
- January 2003
- December 2002
- November 2002
- October 2002
- September 2002
- August 2002
- July 2002
- June 2002
- May 2002
- April 2002
- March 2002
- February 2002
- January 2002
- December 2001
- November 2001
- October 2001
- September 2001
- August 2001
- July 2001
- June 2001
- May 2001