NZPhotographer Issue 5, March 2018

Transport in all its known forms pass by, with bullock
and horse carts jostling for space on the crowded
roads among cycle-rickshaws, cars, trucks and every
man and street dog. There isn’t anywhere to look
where nothing is happening. Your eyes, all your senses
in fact, are beaming, you’ve never been more awake
or alert to your environment. You feel consumed with
adventure and excitement, and this is just the first day!
I couldn't help but name this image (bottom left) The
Backstreet Boys! As a foreigner with a camera you
tend to attract attention. Mostly on the streets you
find curious young to middle-aged men. They often
want to know where you’re from, what you do, and
if you have children. Having children is obviously
more important in their culture than mine, they usually
can’t fathom why I wouldn’t want to have kids! So
it was during my wanders I came across this group
of lads, doing what… I have no idea, but quickly
they gathered around and I was like the paparazzi
snapping away happily as they laughed and joked
to stall holders either side of the street. They spoke
broken English, and mixed with my bad Hindi, together
we smiled and laughed as I captured this candid
moment. Moments in India are almost always candid,
images are a record of a split second in time. A time
that you forever recall with a smile.
Painted in the colours of the Indian flag, a pedestrian
swing bridge (above) stretches high over the river
Ganges in Rishikesh. I sit at an open-air German
Bakery sipping a cappuccino and watching
pilgrims make their way across the bridge. Indian
photographers wait to take Indian tourists’ photos,
they print the shots while the tourists visit the temples.
They’re only in town for 24 hours. I spent time
chatting with them, they’re no different than the
photographers we have in New Zealand at any tourist
site like the Queenstown cable car or at the Sky Tower
in Auckland.
Vendors on this side of the bridge sell dried corn,
peanuts, flowers and other knick-knacks to be offered
up to the Gods for puja once the pilgrim makes it over
to the temple on the other side. Before they reach the
temple however they must run the gauntlet of Rhesus
Macaque monkeys waiting to relieve them of their
goodies. The monkeys work in gangs, and although
mostly harmless they are quite frightening. If you’re
carrying any food at all they will snatch the quarry
from your hand.
March 2018
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