I am not really serious about this question of course. Travel photography is a challenging kind of assignment and some photographers out there are really very good at it. Me? I started my photography exploration in the 80’s by reading Popular Photography and Outdoor Photographer magazines and trying to learn all the tricks about working with a wide angle lens for landscape, and shooting interesting travel pictures, but my carrier hadn’t really taken me in this direction. Not only that, but I must admit that just traveling and taking pictures has never been something that I really do. I either travel on assignment, or on vacation. On assignment I would have my full camera bag with me, and the focus would be the assignment and the brief. When I travel on vacation I carry my small Lumix LX3 and shoot my family. The reason why I bring this up is because my last post was about a personal photo walk I did at the Maha Kumbh Mela in Allahabd in 2001, but I really cant remember when was the last time I simply went out shooting like this in India. Going somewhere with no brief is not something that I do very often, and this is why the pictures here are so different for me.

I was on assignmen in Kerala and on a day off I decided to take a short trip to Kanyakumari, also known by its former name Cape Comorin. Kanyakumari is located at the southernmost tip of the Indian Peninsula, at the confluence of the three water-bodies – the Arabian Sea, the Gulf of Mannar and the Indian Ocean. Here are some of the pictures I took on that day trip. I had a great time :-)

I’ve always been attracted to street food and the instruments that are used to prepare it. Here is the very common sugar cane juice stall decorated with the yellow limes in the foreground of the Thiruvalluvar statue. I loved the way the blue, yellow and orange colors of the juice stall were mirrored in the colors of the saris of two women, framing the famous statue in the distance.

There was a large group of women students from a teachers college visiting the beach, all wearing uniform pink saris. I shot them sitting on the wall above the beach and slowly came down to the water edge with them. I sat quietly behind them as they were completely fascinated with the sea and the waves, oblivious to my presence. At one point someone called from behind, alerting them to the fact that I was taking their picture. They turned to look and I clicked this picture, just before they actually noticed me. The next picture was slightly less interesting as the lady on the left had put her foot down. There was no time for another as they immediately dispersed.

I left the beach just before sunset and the driver took me to the ’sunset point’. there was no sunset as the haze had covered the horizon, but the clouds were painted this amazing pink. A group of women were sitting on the dunes praying next to a small church. I got out of the car and slowly approached them. They were singing quietly and the dune was glowing in the purple color of the sky. It was a wonderful moment and felt so far away from the reality of the busy beach only a few hundred meters away.

Sunset pictures are the most obvious to take, but I loved the simple palm tree catamaran boats on the beach that made this a different sunset picture than anywhere else.

So all this brings back memories of the Maha Kumbh Mela in Allahabad in 2001. I am not sure I will be going to the Kumbh in Haridwar this time, but in 2001 I came to India for this reason alone. I was a commercial photographer in Tel Aviv at the time, and the plan of moving to India was already shaping up. I had just bought a new camera; the Nikon F100 and new lenses, and was going to India to play with it a little.

Thinking back about this trip now feels like it was in another life time. The F100 is of course a film camera, and I carried a bag of 200 rolls of film with me, to be used in India over a period of one month. I had only used about 80 rolls but this was an expensive trip anyway. The amount of money it took to process these rolls could have gotten me a digital camera today!

I went into my archive and dug out a few of my images of the 2001 Kumbh Mela in Allahabad. It is very interesting to look at one’s work in the perspective of time, especialy knowing now, that I had no idea what I was doing at that time. Being a commercial photographer, I had no clue of how to tell a story and how to properly document the event. I was simply walking around looking for nice pictures and hoping I manage to get a few. I must admit that I was mostly disappointed with my results at that time. In that sense, it would actually not be a bad idea to go back to the Kumbh Mela today and see what I come up with.

Anyway, here are a few pics from my trusted F100 that served me so well until it was replaced by the D70 when I stared shooting digital. Good or bad, it was simply an unforgettable experience!

How to find a boring image and make it beautiful

I have just come back from Punjab where I was shooting a feature for a science magazine about the depleting level of underground water. Farmers in Punjab are facing problems of depleting levels of underground water that in some places is already as deep as 700ft! They complain that the state government does not supply enough electricity to use the pumps. They only receive 3-5hr of electricity per day and have to use diesel generators to pump the water for their fields. I got all the images of farmers and water pumps that I needed but I was looking for an image to illustrate the story and saw this painted wall. This is basically an advertisement for water pumps painted on a shed on the Chandigarh-Ludhiana highway.

iso 200, 1/400 sec at f/10

Not a bad image as it has all the elements of the story; the field, the water pump and the electric pole, but it just doesn’t look good enough, not to say boring! I decided to come back to it later in the evening and see how it looks in better light.

This is how it looked just after sunset. Hmm . . mud city! terrible.

iso 200, 1/15 sec at f/9

I had to underexpose to get the sky back in, but then it looks like this. Beautiful sky, but no detail in the building.

iso 200, 8 sec at f/22

A flash on camera is out of the question so I had to think creative. I have two speedlights with me, SB-900 and SB-800. both very reliable, but no one to hold them and I do not travel with stands. I decided to ‘paint’ the scene with a long exposure. I zoomed my SB-900 to 200mm and clicked the shutter with 5sec delay. You can see me on the left side of the picture holding the flash.

iso 200, 6 sec at f/5.6

ok, this is going to look good eventually but I have to be more accurate with the exposure, as well as my location. I also have to bring in the grass and the electric tower into the light. Light is changing fast and it is getting dark so I play with the exposure a bit to save time and keep the longer exposure for the final shot. Low flash from the left of camera to light the grass.

iso 200, 10 sec at f/4.5

Ok, I got it. I need three flashes, one for the building, one for the tower, and one for the grass. Quickly before the color of the sky is gone as it is already way after sunset.

The final shot. iso 200, 13 sec at f/5.6

I have been fascinated by this wonderful apparatus since the first time I saw these street photographers on my first visit to India, back in 1996. Little did I know that fifteen years later I would actually be taking a personal project using such a camera.

I had bought my camera a few years ago from a photographer who used it in Delhi until he realized that ‘Video killed the radio star‘, as the old song goes. Here it was the age of digital photography that killed his business. He started using a simple digital camera but business was never the same anymore. The camera I bought from him has been in use since 1949 and was in pretty good shape when I got it, but naturally needed some minor repairs. The lens is very old and ’soft’, with dust that has not been cleaned for ages. The first stage in my work was to run a few tests with it and make sure I can really use it to produce images. (if you want to know more about how the camera works please read the first post from April 2009).

When I decided that I wanted to start working with the camera again, I made a trip to old Delhi and had the lens cleaned as much as possible.

Using the camera is not an impossible task but I decided that it would be in the better interest of my project if I recruited a photographer who used such a camera for years to assist me in my project. Bharat Bhushan Mahajan, probably the last photographer in Delhi who still keeps such a camera, had agreed to come on board and we had our first day of shooting last week on my roof in New Delhi. His son had accompanied me to Old Delhi to buy the chemicals for the developer and to find someone to clean the old lens.

My assistant, Atul, records the exact mixture of chemicals that Bharat Bhushan Mahajan uses to prepare the developer. We bought the chemicals in Old Delhi the day we went to clean the lens. Rs 85 ($1.8) for everything.

A view into the camera itself. Atul seen from inside the camera as he poses for the test shot

Bharat Bhushan Mahajan and Sephi Bergerson examine the first results. Mahajan actually prefers digital cameras. "Less work, more money" he says. He does not have to make chemicals every day, or get his hands dirty anymore. it is the new age of 'Fata fat' (quick) photography.

The paper negative and the positive

The idea of the project is to use this camera to document the generation of young Indians who visually represent the change that Delhi is going through in the last few years. It would be a requiem to this camera and this photographic technique through the documentation of the people who live in Delhi at the time when it is quickly fading out of sight.

I.D Singh (31), DJ and event promoter, in front of the camera

The result, paper negative and positive.

I have made a list of people that I am going to photograph but this list is still open. If you have an idea of someone that can fit the project please feel free to write and suggest.

Technorati code: B42W6UAXGB92

These are the opening lines for the feature about the growing middle class in India, written by Sebastian Matthes and published by the German business weekly WirtschaftsWoche. I was just informed that the feature is nominated for a CNN award, which made me very happy naturally, only that unfortunately I have not been able to read it as I do not speak German!

Never the less, I find the Indian middle class a very interesting subject to document, and I enjoyed traveling and shooting. As in many cases, the magazine does not always choose to publish the same images as the photographer would consider as his first choice, so I am attaching some of my options here. I think it gives a nice perspective on the process of work on such editorial assignments. The pictures where taken in the span of three days in five cities in India, Chennai, Bangalore, Gurgaon, Delhi, and Noida.

Ramya Chandrasekaran, 30, PR Manager at a local bar in Chennai. "My present life would have been unthinkable in India two decades ago". Ramya Chandrasekaran lives alone, has affairs, gone through a failed Marriage and makes a career. She regularly commutes between Malaysia, Bangalore and Chennai, and has friends who live all over the world. She is very proud of her being independent: "We are children of a new, exciting time."

Saurabh Adeep (30) is a software engineer with a degree from a good college, and several years of professional experience. People like him are in great demand in India. In six years his salary grew almost tenfold. First, he covered himself with brand clothes, and bought watches and expensive accessories for his motorcycle. Today, all that is not important for him anymore. He wants to get ahead professionally, do an MBA and acquire international experience. (next to the Motorola building at a Bangalore industrial park)

Bonita Vaz, 27, designer at her home in Delhi. Raised in a working class family managed to they leap into the modern Indian Elite upper education. Since her studies at the National Institute of Design in Ahmedabad Bonita Vaz is one of the most sought after creative directors across the country. She works for magazines and agencies and lives with her friend Jofree Shimray in Delhi.

Sarath Babu, 29, Entrepreneur, next to a mask against evil eye in the Chennai slum where he lives with his mother. In earlier times people like him would live their life in the shadow of a heavy stigma. He comes from a slum in the eastern Indian city of Chennai, and worse, he was born to a low caste family. But he has worked obsessively, passed the entrance test to India's most prestigious Indian Institute of Management. After graduation he has received many high-paying job offers but decided to go back to the slum and open his own catering business in university campuses across the country. He now employs more than two hundred people.

Text by Sebastian Matthes, Photography by Sephi Bergerson, published by the German business weekly WirtschaftsWoche

wait for the book in January. In the mean time, here are some new images. I hope you like them.

People load a truck with sand from a river bed on the way to Gangotri in the high Himalaya mountains

A truck driving through a forest road in the state of Uttarkand, in the upper Himalayas

Worshipers unload an idol of the Hindu goddess Saraswati from a truck during celebration of Durga Puja festival, some forty km from Delhi

An idol of the HIndu goddess Durga being transported on the back of a truck to the site of immersion during the Durga Puja festival, some forty km from Delhi

A decorated truck is featured in the Bollywood movie 'Dil Bole Hadippa' (2009, Yash Raj films) seen from the projection room of a cinema hall in Noida (UP). The movie projector is reflected in the glass window of the projection room.

A women catching a ride on a back of a loaded truck on the Delhi-Jaipur highway bids farewell to the setting sun.

So the story goes like this; a German company (let’s not mention names here) wants to improve their reputation and decides to spend some money in India to help the poor. They check and find a legitimate NGO that works in the field of microfinancing and contact them. The loans are very small in European standards, but are exactly what people in Raipur need, so all looks well.

The NGO appoints CROs (Client relationship officers) that go to the slums and form groups of women who already have a small business but need some help to grow. The loans will be given to carefully selected women that will be responsible for the other women in the group as well, thus ensuring that the loan will be paid back.

The initial loan given is of Rs 5,000 (€ 72) and the weekly return on this loans is Rs 224 (€ 3.2). This is enough to enable women like Devo Bhagel (48) to grow her small scale business, selling Gupchup, a famous street food savory delicacy, on the streets of Raipur.

Devo Baghel (48) at home, preparing Gupchup, a savory street food snack, that she sells every night on the streets of Raipur.

Devo Baghel (48) and her husband work together at her Gupchup cart on the street of Raipur, Chhatisgarh.

So far so good. Once the initial loan is returned, Devo will be able to apply for another loan of up to Rs 25,000. She already has two helpers and it seems that her business is going in the right direction. So, what else you must be asking? well, this is what happened.
We (myself and a journalist) arrived in Raipur on Sunday night and checked into our hotel, where we also met the NGO coordinator, Vinney Vani. He was a very pleasant man, and obviously very eager to help. We explained what we were looking for and he said he will help locate a woman that could be a good example for the project. “We cannot just go anywhere looking for people” he said, “as people might think we are trying to convert them” (!). Now what would Sigmund Freud have to say about that? I could feel my left eyebrow raised.  Anyway, before we parted, he suggested that we join him and the other office staff at their office in the morning for “Devotion”. “it is a half-hour program” he said, ” we pray and sing for the Lord”. I was not very excited, but could not really refuse.

Vinney Vani from Growing Opportunities (India) Pvt. Ltd. at Devo Baghel's home in Raipur, Chhatisgarh. "My wife is originally from a Hindu Brahmin family, but she had found the Lord"

The morning program was a bit embarrassing. We were seated in front of the twenty or so workers and were garlanded with flowers. Prayer and devotional christian singing followed. As it turns out, Growing Opportunity (India) Pvt. Ltd., a legitimate and reputed organization with a head office in Chennai, seem to be a very religious Christian organization spread all over the country.

I would not want to jump to conclusions here, but a quick internet search brought up a story on the NYTimes Christian-run companies increasing in almost every corner of the globe. NY Times: Their Mission: Spreading the Word Through Business (click to read). An interesting read!

Innocent? incidental? only good people trying to help? I leave it up to you to judge, but it does look a little suspicious.

* Microfinance is the provision of financial services to low-income clients, including consumers and the self-employed, who traditionally lack access to banking and related services.

UNDP works with the National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) to respond to HIV and AIDS in India and reduce its impact by supporting the national efforts and offering knowledge, resources and technical expertise to effectively implement the National AIDS Control Program.
Almost 15.6 million people across India were provided with information, training and services to improve their capacities to deal with HIV. People living with HIV as well as trafficking survivors receive livelihood training to expand their employment opportunities and skills.
On an assignment for UNDP in Orissa I visited an HIV clinic in a town about twenty kilometers from Bhubaneshwar and met some of the people who need to live with HIV.

Usharani Behera (30) and her daughter Rani (3) at the community care center at Cuttack, about 20km from Bhubaneshwar, Orissa. They were tested HIV+ in 2007 once her husband was seriously ill. © Sephi Bergerson / UNDP India

Bipin Das (42) is an HIV+ truck driver. He now receives the HIV pension thanks to the advocacy of UNDP as part of the HIV mainstreaming project, and uses the money to travel for his ARV treatment. © Sephi Bergerson / UNDP India

Mandakini Behera (22) at the HIV community center at Cuttack, Orissa. She has tested HIV+ in 2004 and now receives the HIV government pension. © Sephi Bergerson / UNDP India

The list of photographers mentioned in the invite, and I am certain most of you will recognize many of the names. Each photographer contributes two images. I am going to show two images titled ‘Gods of Earth and Heaven’ 1 & 2. Print size is 20″x30″, limited edition of 10 prints.

A poster of Shirdi Sai Baba and a street food vendor's sieve, on an MTNL telephone box in down town Mumbai. 'Gods of Earth and Heaven 1'. Print size is 20"x30", limited edition of 10 prints.

A village God on a construction site of a new temple in Vallapalam, Tamil Nadu. 'Gods of Earth and Heaven 2'. Print size is 20"x30", limited edition of 10 prints.

Please come by the gallery to view the exhibition. I look forward to seeing you there.

The sights and smells, noise and fervour, pomp and grandeur, rites and rituals… Can any other occasion on earth ever match the great Indian wedding saga? Yet, ask any married couple about the big day and they’ll tell you it was a blur, when they did as commanded – to keep the head low or dive for someone’s feet; to stand up or sit down; to hold hands or let go. Our weddings are a heady cocktail of religious and social commitments laid out like a cultural extravaganza. Rites and rituals form its backbone and every region, religion, community and sect has its own take. They celebrate the beginning of a shared life, assign roles, break the ice, and seek promises of loving and living together. Photographer Sephi Bergerson began documenting weddings two years ago.
His camera became an excuse to study this interesting social and cultural phenomenon. The original idea for Sephi’s book was to shoot five ceremonies. “But the subject kept growing,” says the Israeli photographer, who is stumped by how each wedding is different from the other. “I set out assuming a lot will be similar but there are so many different customs, they adapt and absorb.” And then there is Bollywood with its mehendi and baraat. Yet, when he asks people what is special about their wedding ceremonies, he is met with a dismissive shrug, “Oh, it’s nothing special, just a regular Indian wedding!” So it is.

Potpourri: (Top left) The bride was from Nagaland, her father a Sikh, the groom Swedish. As Bergerson says, “It was a mix of people that was so unbelievable that only India can provide.” Here, the bride, is being led down the aisle by her father at the breathtaking venue in Udaipur. Flying High: (Top) A Bengali wedding involves many elaborate and colourful rituals. On the night of the marriage, the bride sits on a low stool called piri, which is lifted by her brothers, and from her ‘elevated’ position, she circles the groom seven times, to indicate being wound-up securely to each other. The bride and groom then exchange garlands. Kabool Hai: (Left) A muslim bride signs the nikahnama before a Maulana. The bridegroom signs the Nikah separately and then the couple are pronounced married. “The entire ceremony took one minute and the wedding was over.” All In A Name: (Right) A Ladakhi Buddhist bride enters the wedding shamiana. Called bagston in the local language, weddings here are not religious but a social event. They don’t need a priest or a Lama. A couple can mutually decide to get married and inform the parents. This couple had been together for over 10 years and have two children. Relatives began to pressurise them to organise a ceremony where they could bless the couple by wrapping the sacred scarf or kathak on the pair as a symbol of their blessing

Quite An Earful: (Right) The sister of the bride examines the piercing for a dejhoru, an ear ornament that hangs from the middle of the cartilage. Young Kashmiri pundit girls get the painful piercing done as they prepare for their wedding. These ear ornaments symbolise marital status. Blown Away: (Below) Wedding games are part of most Indian marriages. In this wedding in Vishakhapatnam, the couple blows confetti into each others faces. “Sameera lived in Australia and Pradeep in the US and they came to their hometown to get married,” says the photographer. Strands of Love: (Above) In a Syrian Christian wedding, the sari that the groom presents his bride in church is called the mantrakodi. The night before the ceremony, strands of thread are drawn from this sari by the groom’s sister and twisted to form a cord. On this cord is tied the thaali, a leaf-shaped gold pendant with a cross. The mantrakodi is placed on the bride’s head by the priest, as he blesses her. Bangle Up: (Bottom right) The mother of a bride picks up the chura which is soaked in milk at a ceremony performed early in the morning on the day of a Punjabi marriage. The bride’s maternal uncles then slide the bangles down her wrist. The chura symbolises marital status and is worn by the bride for the next few weeks, or sometimes months. Tip Toe: (Left) In the temple town of Madurai, a groom slides a ring on his bride’s toe. The groom too wears his wedding ring on the second toe. The story behind this, says Bergerson, is that in the past, when women were expected to keep their heads down, the toe rings indicated to them the marital status of others.”

Last night I went to Old Delhi for the Ram Barat procession that went through Sadar Bazar and Chandni Chowk. I wanted to photograph the trucks for the trucking book, but it turned out there were no trucks and the procession was all bullock carts. A bit disappointing, but I did manage to get these fun pictures that I might end up using for my book on Indian weddings. It is just that I couldn’t understand why they were so serious and didn’t even give a single smile. Are they told to be serious, or were they simply boiling inside the costumes? We finished the evening with a quick bite at Paratha wali gali. They still make some mean parathas there :-)

A young boy dressed as Lord Shiva, and a girl dressed as his wife, Parvati, on a carriage during the Ramlila procession in Old Delhi. Why do the have to be so serious? must have been realy hot under this costume . .

Uniformed members of a wedding procession band ride on horses during the Ramlila procession in Old Delhi, September 2009

Besides producing these unique works of art, this village has a living tradition of performing art known as Gotipua, the earlier form of Odissi. Guru Kelu Charan Mohapatra, an exponent of Odissi dance, was born in this village and had his early trainings in Gotipua tradition here. Now a Gotipua Gurukul Dance School has been established here under the guidance of Guru Maguni Charan Das. The trainees of this school present their performances in different cultural events, in India and abroad.

The government of India has selected Raghurajpur village for the promotion or rural tourism in the country as a part of a program to highlight tourism potential of villages. United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) takes an active part in this initiative as  part of it’s Endogenous Tourism Project (ETP).
all images © Sephi Bergerson / UNDP India

A man walks past a temple in the middle of the artists village of Raghurajpur in Puri district Orissa. The village runs from east to west with houses arranged in two neat rows, facing each other. At the centre, runs a line of small temples and the lone Bhagabat Tungi, the community meeting place of the villagers. The temples are dedicated to the lords, Radha Mohan, Gopinath, Raghunath, Laxminarayan, Gouranga, and to the village goddess, Bhuasuni.

Drawings on a house wall in the artists village of Raghurajpur in Puri district Orissa. Raghurajpur was selected to revive the ancient wall paintings of Orissa. The work has already been completed and now the village looks like a living museum of paintings.

A practice performance of the junior level Gotipua dancers at Gotipua Gurukul, a part of UNDP's ETP in village Raghurajpur, Orissa.

Guruji Maguni Das (99) winner of the Padmashree award 2004 is the Gotipua Gurukul's Orissi dance Guru.

Dyes on the floor of an artist studio, Raghurajpur, Orissa.

An artist at work. Raghurajpur village, Orissa. each family is engaged in one craft or another. There are 103 households having 311 artisans in the village. Some of them are winners of National Awards. One comes across the best tradition of Orissan paintings and some of the finest pieces of work in this village.

Daily life in the artists village of Raghurajpur in Puri district Orissa.

An artist showcasing his creation. Raghurajpur village, Orissa.

The exhibition titled ‘Juvenilia Juxtaposed’ will stay open September 10 till September 26th daily from 11am-7pm. The Gallery Ragini is at F213C, Lado Sarai, New Delhi (see Google map). Please join us for an exclusive preview of the works on September 9th at 7pm.

The images I am showing are from two projects; the ‘Street food of India’ book, and my series ‘Mall Generation’ in Indian malls. All prints are 20″x30″, printed on archival fine art paper and are a limited edition of eight prints.

Fast food, Ludhiana mall, 2008

Movie ticket, Ludhiana mall, 2008

Dosa, Khao gali, Mumbai 2007

Fruit vendor, Khan market, New Delhi 2006

This eleven-day festival called Ganesh Chaturthi begins with the installation of beautifully sculpted Ganesha idols in homes and large tents where they are worshiped with family and friends. The festival is celebrated over ten days at the end of which the idol is taken in a big procession around the city’s streets and immersed in the Indian ocean. Tens of thousands of people gather on Chowpati beach in south Mumbai to witness the immersion of the biggest idols.

A pair of Spotted Owlet (Athene brama) in the tree in front of our window in Delhi

And some information about the Spotted Owlet from Wikipedia:
The Spotted Owlet (Athene brama) is a small owl which breeds in tropical Asia from India to Southeast Asia. They are very common species and have adapted to living in cities. They roost in small groups in the hollows of trees or in cavities in rocks or buildings. This species is a part of the larger grouping of owls known as typical owls, Strigidae. The Spotted Owlet is a common resident bird in open habitats including farmland and human habitation. It nests in a hole in a tree or building, laying 3-5 eggs. Nests near human habitations were found to show higher breeding success with the young being fed a greater number of rodents.

I have a weakness for the half-plate — the ‘adha chai’ in a tiny kulhar, the half-portion of jhalmuri in a minuscule paper packet offered by some Calcutta vendors, the miniature dosa that would be slightly less than half a classic Udupi-sized portion. Sephi Bergerson’s Street Food of India is halfway between paperback book and coffee-table book, and in this format, his gentle photographs become alluring precisely because he’s offering an indicative, not authoritative, guide to eating out, Indian-style.

Bergerson flouted the two dictums handed out to every foreigner — don’t drink the water, and don’t eat the salad. From Paharganj and Chandni Chowk in Delhi to the bylanes of Bombay to Varanasi, Bergerson seems to have lived and travelled in this country using his eyes and his palate as a guide, falling in love with everything from the humble bread pakora in multiple variations to delicate daulat ki chaat. The South is under-represented in comparison, with just a few pictures and recipes — a sad omission that dilutes the value of the book.

Bergerson’s introductory essay is actually a thinly disguised love letter to the grand tradition of eating on the streets, a tradition that he fears is threatened by the explosion of food courts, and the demand for clean, hygienic fare that ignores what he considers the freshness, variety and the sheer spontaineity of street food.

The recipes that accompany his pictures are accurate but almost superfluous — his goal is to tempt you out onto the streets, not into the kitchen. This book is not definitive, nor is it an instant classic, but Bergerson’s carefully taken shots of everything we ignored, from a row of Banta bottles to the intricate curlicues of fruit juice vendors’ signs to a garlanded water cart makes it worth your while. This, like the street food it describes, is tasty, snack-and-go fare.

Four hour drive from Cochin, at an elevation of about 5000 ft above sea level, Munar is a beautiful destination for a vacation. Very often we drove in dense fog that only added to the mystery of the landscape. God’s own country indeed.

A coconut seller on the road to Munar, Kerala

Local nuns stop to pray at a roadside christian shrine in Munar, Kerala

Decorated cows in meadow approaching Munar tea estates, Kerala

Local women picking tea in the plantations, Munar, Kerala

Workers of the tea plantations carry fresh picked leafs to the road where they will be collected for further processing

Transporting the freshly picked tea leafs form the plantation to the factory, Munar, Kerala

A decorated Kerala truck loaded with timber, Munar, Kerala

I don't have too many pictures of myself. When I do finally pose for a one it really does feel a little strange, but hey, if I don't do that I will never have any picture at all :-)

My late mother used to say in Yiddish; “A sach meluches, a kleine bruches”, which would roughly translate to “you cant get any blessings in your work if you are not focused”. In other words, if you sell sardines than don’t be selling tissue paper. let your clients know what you sell and come for that. Be an expert. You must be asking yourself why am I saying this here?  well, because I am not one of those photographers who do one thing, and I often think of what my mother had said. It would be very simple if I decided to be a food photographer, or a travel, or wedding photographer, but I can’t. I love photography and I love doing different things all the time. Like I wrote in my previous post, this is what I learned, on the negative way, from Ansel Adams.

How focused are you as a photographer?

So, I ran across Clayton Cubbit’s website yesterday. A very interesting and inspiring fashion photographer. I don’t do a lot of fashion photography, but used to do more in my earlier years as a commercial photographer in Tel Aviv. Looking at Clayton’s work brought back some good memories, and reminded me of this fashion project I shot last year for Lecoanet Hemant in India, and have never actually put on my website. The reason was because I didn’t want to spread the website to thin,and maybe try to focus it a bit more. But then, it is who I am, and I also do this kind of work. A blessing or a curse?