-
Recent Posts
- Our Truly Amazing TV Debut: Behind the Scenes
- Holi in Bangladesh Part 2: the Ruined Roll
- Holi in Bangladesh
- Hashing Out Old Dhaka
- The Blog is Back: First Impressions of Dhaka, Bangladesh
- A Few Words About My Father
- The Sky is NOT Always Blue in California
- “Artisans” documentary series – final (?) episode
- Every Day is a Surprise. Also, People are A$$h0Le5. (part 2)
- Every Day is a Surprise. Also, People are A$$h0Le5.
Category Archives: Life in India
Day at the Beach
Marina Beach, Chennai, India
Posted in Life in India
Tagged beach, Chennai, dog, fish, India, Marina Beach, surfing
Leave a comment
Indian Portraits from the 1950s and 1960s
Between Chennai and Pondicherry is an area with an especially high proliferation of “junk stores. I suppose the owners would prefer we’d call them antique shops – but there actually aren’t that many actual antiques, just lots of oddities and … Continue reading
Posted in Found Film, Life in India
Tagged antique, India, Madurai, photographs, posed, studio, vintage
3 Comments
Random Scenes from Bangalore
We took a stroll through “Gandhi Bazaar” in Bangalore – also known as “Basavanagudi” – last weekend, and I thought I share some random – if occasionally odd – photos. The first photo is literally a bunch of leaves. It’s … Continue reading
Posted in Life in India
Tagged Bangalore, Basavanagudi, Gandhi bazaar, street photography
Leave a comment
Impressions of Koyambedu
Koyambedu Wholesale Market Complex is one of Asia’s largest perishable goods market complexes. Spread over an area of 295 acres, the complex consists of more than 1,000 wholesale shops and 2,000 retail shops. The market has two blocks for vegetable shops and one … Continue reading
Posted in Life in India, Photowalks
Tagged Chennai, India, Koyambedu, market, photowalk, wholesale
Leave a comment
Photographing Chennai’s Kids
A number of different photographer groups in Chennai regularly organize photowalks – walks through various neighborhoods in Chennai. The potential photographic subjects will vary – sometimes it’s market vendors, or stately old buildings, still life, fishing villages. In certain situations, … Continue reading
Posted in Life in India, Photowalks
Tagged Chennai, children, India, Island Ground, photowalk
Leave a comment
Checking in with Rocky
I recently had the opportunity to meet Rocky Braat, the subject of an amazing documentary called “Blood Brother,” winner of both the Audience and Grand Jury Prize at Sundance 2013. The film tells the story of a disillusioned young American … Continue reading
Posted in Good Causes, Life in India
Tagged AIDS, Blood Brother, donations, India, orphans, project, Rocky Braat, shelter
Leave a comment
Kasimedu Fishing Harbor
At the northern end of Chennai’s coast, just north of the Chennai port, where, at any given time, hundreds of trucks stretch in a long line waiting to load or unload goods, is Kasimedu fishing harbor – also known as … Continue reading
Posted in Life in India
Tagged Chennai, drydock, fishing, fishing boats, Harbor, Kasimedu, royapuram
2 Comments
Repurposing Indian Doors
If you have an old camera or two, it looks nice on a bookshelf with a couple of hardcover books. But what do you do with 75 old cameras? Who has that many bookshelves? It seemed a shame to have … Continue reading
We Two Ours One
As foreigners living in India, we constantly see things around us that leave us scratching our heads. There’s simply not enough time to chase them all down and figure out what they mean, so often we just accept them and … Continue reading
Chennai: Textures
I’ve posted before about Chennai’s endless walls and the fact that many of them get postered, painted, repainted and repostered. This creates interesting textures; so much so, that one of my predecessors did an entire photographic exhibition on just that … Continue reading
Chennai: Grit and Grain
In Namibia, photography was all about long lenses, tripods, “the golden hour”, and finding the right guide. Since moving to Chennai, a large city in India, the lenses have gotten much shorter, shooting is sometimes instinctive; and sweeping landscapes have … Continue reading
Chennai’s Walls: an Endless Canvas
Chennai is full of walls. Many of them are marked “stick no bills” – and people will generally abide by that request. But the majority end up being political advertising space. The successive layers of paint upon paint, posters upon … Continue reading
Badrian Street and the Flower Market
Badrian Street or “Budirian Street” as it is painted on the street sign, is the site of Chennai’s old wholesale flower market. While technically, the vendors in what is commonly known as “poo-k-kadai,” sell “wholesale”, their typical clients are ladies who … Continue reading
Posted in Life in India, Photowalks
Tagged Badrian Street, Chennai, flower market, India, Parry's, Photography, pookkadai
Leave a comment
Goa is for the Birds – Literally
Just north of Panaji, Goa’s “small but spritely” capital, where the Mapusa and Mandovi Rivers meet, is what appears to be an island – Chorao Island – which has 11,000 inhabitants, and whose western end is a 1.8 square kilometer … Continue reading
Posted in Life in India, Wildlife and Nature
Tagged birdwatching, Dr. Salim Ali, Goa, guide, India, kingfisher, Panaji, Panjim, sanctuary, Uday
Leave a comment
Vintage Camera Test: No 2 Hawkeye Model C Anniversary Edition
This week’s vintage camera test is an interesting one (yes, but aren’t they all?), despite its rather long name. Waaaay back in the late 1880s, a small company called the Boston Camera Company introduced a model called the “Hawk-Eye” Detective … Continue reading
Posted in Life in India, Vintage cameras
Tagged anniversary, Chennai, Hawkeye, India, Kapaleeshwarar, Kodak, kolam, No. 2 Hawk-Eye, temple, vintage
Leave a comment
Guindy National Park
Smack in the middle of Chennai is a 2.8 square-kilometer national park – one of India’s smallest – which is an extension of the Tamil Nadu Governor’s residence. Along its fringes can be found the Snake Park, which I’ve posted … Continue reading
At the Fair – Chennai Style
There’s a place in north-central Chennai where they set up the local “fair.” Called the “Island Grounds”, it’s the site of the 40th Tourism and Trade Fair. To be honest, we skipped most of the trade fair itself, but found … Continue reading
Posted in Life in India, Photography, general, Photowalks
Tagged Chennai, Fair, ferris wheel, Island Grounds, night photography, photowalk
Leave a comment
Testing the Agfa Silette Rapid F
When I’m considering vintage cameras for purchase, I specifically look for cameras that still appear to work, and for which film can still be acquired somehow. Then, periodically, I grab a couple and test them out. This week, it’s the … Continue reading
Posted in Life in India, Tips and Tricks, Vintage cameras
Tagged Agfa, camera, film, Photography, Rapid, Silette, test, vintage
2 Comments
Documenting the Dhobis
British soldiers may know the terms “doing your dhobi” (laundry) and “dhobi dust” (detergent) – but they may not be aware of these terms’ origins. A photographer friend recently spent several hours negotiating, on behalf of a small group of … Continue reading
Posted in Life in India, Vintage cameras
Tagged caste, Chennai, dhobi, ghat, hereditary profession, India, khana, washermen, washerwomen
1 Comment
Mylapore’s Annual Kolam Contest
When I first arrived in southern India, I blogged about the “kolams” made by millions of women in India every day. So it turns out this is also a competitive sport of sorts! Over the last four days, the Mylapore … Continue reading
Posted in Life in India, Photowalks
Tagged Chennai, contest, festival, India, kolam, mylapore, sugar cane
Leave a comment
Christmas Photowalk
This Christmas, several of us got things like lenses and other camera-related items in our stockings. So it was quite natural that we decided to take a “family photowalk” on Christmas Day, especially given that we are living in a … Continue reading
Posted in Life in India
Tagged Chennai, Christmas, photowalk, shopping district, T. Nagar
Leave a comment
Hanging Around in Hyderabad (Post #3)
For my third and final post on our trip to Hyderabad, I’m sharing a roll of Tri-X 400 film (black and white) I shot with my Ricoh Super Kr-5 II, a camera that’s barely vintage, having been manufactured in … Continue reading
Hanging Around in Hyderabad (2nd Post)
A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to spend a week working in Hyderabad, a city of 7 or so million in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh (which is in the process of splitting into two states – … Continue reading
The Argus Seventy-Five: Great Photos for a So-Called “Toy” Camera
The Argus 75, also marketed as the Argus Seventy-Five and the Argoflex Seventy-Five*, is a bakelite pseudo TLR made by the Argus company between 1949 and 1964. It’s a simple, inexpensive, yet reliable little box camera that you would hang … Continue reading
Posted in Life in India, Vintage cameras
Tagged 120 film, 75, Argoflex, Argus, black and white, Seventy-five, vintage camera
1 Comment
Hanging Around in Hyderabad
I had the opportunity to spend a bit of time in Hyderabad, India’s fourth-largest city. It has some very interesting and historically significant buildings and monuments, centuries-old bazaars, and the ancient ruins of an old fort – as well as … Continue reading