INDIA - a love affair - 1995
My love affair with India started many moons ago, 9,125 to to be exact in 1995. Whilst sitting in a cafe in London, we had missed our coach back to university in Nottingham as we had been photographing the Anti Nazi Riot in Welling Lane that day and got so involved we missed our ride back. I said to a friend of mine, Mike - “ let’s go to India!” - “ ok” he said. “ When?” - “mmmmm - lets give ourselves 10 days to get ready.” The journey began.
At my university in Nottingham, you could approach them with a specific place you wanted to go to as long as you had a bare photographic brief and came back with some kind of imagery then you’d probably get the green light. And so it began. We got together our plan and approached the head of year. “ You will be working won’t you?” was the question. “ Ok then off you go.” It was our last year coming up at Nottingham Trent Uni and we both knew that this would be the ideal trip to shoot for our end of year show and presentation for our degree. Of course at that time we had little thought for money as grants were available ( you don’t really think of how your going to pay this back when you’re young!)
Nevertheless we set off to our local army & navy store to see what we could find. I knew I wanted to shoot in BW film, as we would be processing this ourselves. Photoshop was just coming in on our last year of uni, 1995 - I have to say I wasn’t that interested in anything on the computer - little did we know!
The next week came and went and the excitement grew. The camera I had at that time was a Canon EOS 1000fn, 28mm , 35mm & 50mm lenses. Not the best kit but kit wasn’t everything.
A food flask from Boots was good enough to keep may film in.
I wanted to take around 25-35 rolls of film but I needed a way to keep it safe and dry. So I found a food flask, I think from Boots! It held 35 rolls of film exactly. ( still have it - pictured left! ) I took mostly Kodak T-max 100, some rolls of T-max 400 for any darker conditions knowing I could ‘push’ the film should I need too. I can’t remember what camera my friend Mike had. I think he was Nikon at that time. It filled a lot of the rucksack but kept all my film dry & safe. I did have an argument with the airport at the time about putting it through the xray!
This was my first big trip as a photographer. I knew we had to be careful as our trip took us up to Nepal, Mumbai to Calcutta. To say we travelled in the month we were out there is an understatement! I remember buying an old world war 1 or 2 gas mask bag from the Army/Navy store to keep my camera in. Even going so far as to tape over the Canon symbol on the camera just incase it drew attention. How naive we were but years later looking back at at the negatives that survived 25 years it was that naivety that made the images work.
I remember us arriving in Delhi at 9pm and immediately it felt like being hit by a truck. We had arranged a hostel for a couple of nights whilst we found our feet. I remember also taking a spare Nikon body & lens with me borrowed from Uni . We had found a safe house in Delhi where we could leave kit and should the worst happen we could come back to Delhi and get the spare kit. I just wanted to get to the hostel, good or bad it didn’t matter. I just wanted to get away from the crowds, the smells. All of my senses were overwhelmed. At this point in my life I was 24 yrs old, still at university and very much finding my photographic eye. I think we stayed in the hostel for two days before we plucked up the courage to venture out into the madness. We headed out early morning into the parks , just getting used to being outside with our kit! I had a couple of rolls of T-max in my ‘gas mask’ bag and was by now raring to go.
It was a real learning curve for me , I had got into university 2 years earlier on the strength of my portfolio - mostly landscapes - then spent the next two years mostly learning how to photograph people. A different genre of photography for sure. Documentary photography was my main go to. I admired the work of Sebastio Selgado, Don McCullin and Josef Koudelka, actually meeting McCullin earlier that year at a riot in London. He dropped a lens right in front of me which I handed back. Later, through a picture in the newspaper realising that this was him I was to follow his work until this day.
Anyway back to India.
The days came & went - slowly. Time stood still in a land where everything moved. We got more brave , every day. Planning our route, Delhi, Agra, Nepal and most of the bits in between. I remember walking the streets in Delhi, absorbing every smell & sound that surrounded us. People would see us with our cameras and stop us and ask for a picture. It was all part of the process I guess of shooting in such a place for the first time. Knowing that we had a limited amount of film for our trip also made us wary and more inclined to wait until we took the shot. Not like today where it costs nothing to shoot as much as you want. Looking back I can see from the negatives that the success rate was pretty high! It was the first time I’d been away with Mike also and all in all we got on great. A few learning curves about sharing a room with each other , especially as we were staying in less than favourable accommodation.
I remember taking this image like it was yesterday. I had a Canon EOS 1000fn camera that my mother had bought me for Uni. Armed with a 35mm - 28mm & 50mm lens we headed out at dawn onto the river banks of the Ganga ( Ganges ) river in Varanasi. At that time of the morning the light is unimaginably beautiful just before the sun comes up and the opportunity for images was amazing. I remember seeing this man from a about 100ft away thinking if I can get behind him , close enough without him seeing me the chance for an image was there. Of course we were shooting film then, mostly T-max 100 or 400. I happened to have a roll of Ilford XP2 in the camera from the night before so I had 4 left on that roll. I took all four frames which was unusual for me because I had trained myself to shoot a maximum of two images in one place so it must have been good. I remember waiting for the boat to pass in the background but my main focus was on the figure in front of me. I have never bothered too much when composing an image about the horizon, usually it would be 2/3 up the frame going through the shoulder area but on this occasion it split the image in half. I love the boy also either putting on his shirt or removing it to go and swim in the coolness of the morning. I always try and look around the camera frame before pressing the shutter, making sure all the elements line up.
You can see from the contact sheet how the framing changed as the moment passed. I like the first frame but remembered being concerned about the horizon being too high so I got down lower and more parallel to him. To be honest all four frames work pretty well as he is saying his morning prayer to the sacred river. Not being able to check the camera made it looking back now a lot harder yet somehow more rewarding. We didn’t know any better! The exposure had to be spot on, using the internal meter on the camera and slightly underexposing. This set of negatives is actually in pretty bad nick to be honest. Somehow they stuck to the inside of the neg sleeve over the years, so a little gentle touch up in photoshop. Something we were only starting to her about at Uni that year, 1995. It had been out in public domain for 5 years having been developed in 1987! We didn’t take too much notice of its introduction at Uni, preferring to make little cardboard cut outs and dodge & burn by hand in the night of the darkroom. I remember feeling pretty pleased with myself after this shot and wandering off to find Mike to tell him about my Selgado moment!
Taken by my travel partner Mike, this was taken on the River Banks in Varanasi in 1995, 25 years ago at the tender age of 24! I preferred when shooting to always keep my camera tucked behind my arm so it wasn’t the first thing people saw when I approached. Shooting with nothing else but a couple of rolls of film in my pocket and a battery or two. Forgive the sandals but I always travelled and dressed in a similar way, whether in the Amazon, Africa or Asia. That shirt, I think I had it until a few years ago when Kris emptied out the cupboards! Most men in India wear shirts and pants. Most tourists wear shorts and t-shirts. I remember thinking that ok, I am a tourist as well but it doesn’t mean I have to dress like one. We actually one day went out to a local shop and bought indian shirts too.
My love affair with India is certainly one of two halves. I think most people that visit would agree with me. On one hand you love it, it consumes you, the power, mysteriousness around every corner reawakens every sense you forgot about. Then on the other, the poverty ( in places ) the relentlessness of life, it never stops, the sounds, smells all attack you from every angle. I think this split is the reason I love it so much. I have never felt as so alive as I do when I am there. It fills you with a sense of wonder & wander! You yearn for more and now & then you yearn for less - a break in a park or on a rooftop away from the hustle.
Our journey continued from Varanasi around different parts of India, sleeping on the trains at night to save on hotels. Carrying only a small rucksack each our adventure took us 4 weeks if I remember rightly. I remember being in Agra and visiting the Taj Mahal. We had been told to get there early to avoid the crowds that flock there every day. So we booked in at a local guest house nearby and waited until dawn. Unbelivebely we were the first people there bar a few security, the coachloads of tourists preferring until it has warmed up a bit. It can get quite chilly in the night in India, even in the height of Summer. I remember walking in and just standing and staring in awe at what was infront of us. A feast for the eyes. The simple yet massivley complicated design taking 17 years to complete, built in memory to his third wife , Mumtaz Mahal. . The stunning detail was worked on by 22,000 labourers! According to legend, the Emperor Shan Jahan had also planned on building a black marble Taj Mahal on the other side of the river, however the war with his son stopped his plans! Can you imagine what a site that would have been!
My actual entry ticket to the Taj Mahal - year 1995 1.50 paise
Taj ticket - 500 rupees - year 2000
Quite the inflation despite it only being 5 years inbetween visits. That’s one major thing I noticed inbetween those two trips. Everyone had definitley wised up to the power of the GBP or US $. I remember staying in a guest house by the river Ganges, food for three days and a trip on the river at dawn and still have change from £15.00 left in my wallet. An inefitable progression as India became the powerhouse nation it is today.
One big thing that i notice from looking at my work from 25 years ago is that I very rarely put the camera into a vertical orientation. Preferring to see the frame as my eyes see it and then figure out what goes in it and what stays out. An interesting observation when I think about it. My ‘portrait’ work now is often portrait , my wedding documentary on the other hand is often landscape, apart from when shooting the couple. Preferring I guess to stay true to my documentary roots.
Food wise I always think back to my India trips and how in 1995 everything I ate seemed to be laced with spice! EVERYTHING! I think it certainly over the time there made me more tolerant to it but less wanting it in my life as is proven by this food bill I found.
A receipt from 1995 from a trip to the restaurant!
I’m pretty sure it says 3 plates of chips - 1 coffee - & I can’t make out what the last thing was, maybe a milk lassi?. I think for sure though that instead of diving into the local cuisine head on this was probably my staple diet for the whole trip!
When we left India for 7 days and travelled to Nepal it all fell apart. I recall stopping on the bus on the way to Nepal and looking up from the tea stand and saying to Mike , ‘ I wonder which mountain that is?’ ‘ Everest ‘ , a voice replied from the bus. Standing there open mouthed as we both took in what we were seeing! The first night in Nepal I contracted a terrible stomach bug and ended up in a doctors office for that week on a drip and medication trying to fight the infection. All the plain eating and not brushing teeth in the water and not eating street food in India was in vain as I still got sick! Nepal was a stunning place , once I recovered! So clean and calm when compared to India. I remember having apple pie and commenting that it was almost as good as my nan’s - almost x
We spent the couple of days we had left there just chilling and not really wanting to leave to go back to the craziness of India. I think we both came to realisation that in truth that was what makes India, India. The way that everything just works, somehow in this melay of madness it just works. Something that upon returning to the UK hit us hard. It was almost harder coming back to the UK as it was to enter India. I think we had been changed and for the better. Our outlook and expectations, our needs and outlook on life even at the tender age of 24 was changed and for the better.
Mike & I in 1995 enjoying a little glass of something , I think wine! Or was it coke, not too sure now. Our last night of the trip before heading back to the UK. The blanket on the bed behind me to the right I still have and when I travel it comes with me to this day. Bought from a market in New Mexico! Certainly certain things that you own hang around for most of your life ( unless your wife finds them and does a clean out! )
