During one of my first trips to India in 2002, I arrived in Delhi expecting to see throngs of people bustling about the city. Instead, the streets were eerily empty. As I wandered in disbelief, three young men came pedaling around a corner on a bicycle, their faces and clothes covered in bright colored powder.
“Happy Holi!” they shouted, laughing as they tossed red powder on me and disappeared down the road. I had arrived on Holi, the exuberant Hindu festival that marks the end of winter and the beginning of spring — a celebration of color, renewal, and the triumph of light over darkness.
My wife is from India, though she grew up in Canada, California, and Delhi, where her parents still live. My first trip to India was in 2000, two years before I met her in Vermont. Over the last two decades, I’ve traveled to India about fifteen times — from the Himalayan foothills to the beaches of Kerala.
In India, life is lived out in the open. The crowds can be exhilarating or overwhelming, sometimes both at once. The country bursts with color and rhythm — with moments of unexpected street poetry.
I remember one morning in Delhi, photographing along the Yamuna River in the heavy winter fog. I was there to document India’s water issues. As I walked the riverbank, the sun suddenly broke through the haze. Below me, a man in a small boat was tossing food to a flock of seagulls. In a flash, the birds exploded into flight. I raised my camera and caught a frame full of movement, light, and life.
On another trip, I joined a photography workshop during Holi in Nandgaon and Barsana. Our instructor, Sanjay Nanda, had simple but essential advice: wear old clothes, Crocs, and cover your camera with a plastic housing. Inside the temples, we were doused with colored powders and sprayed with water. It was total chaos — and a total joy for a photographer.
While I love photographing crowds, I’m equally drawn to quieter moments — a man rowing a boat at dawn on the Ganges, a flower vendor in Kolkata, families strolling Marine Drive in Mumbai as the sun sets.
India offers both the spectacle and the subtle — the chaotic and the calm.
Click on pictures to see full size gallery, story below.
