People of India....
I´m not an India insider. I never travelled India as a backpacker nor did I ever a yoga retreat in the Himalaya. My whole life is a series of short trips. Most of the time my souls is still travelling towards the destination when I´m on my way home already. India is a whole galaxy on its own and nobody can know it profoundly in such a short time.
I don´t even scratch on the surface with my photos. Is the world a stage for my images? When is the world not a stage for our own desire for exiting experiences? Do we misuse the world and other cultures as fun parks?
It´s easy for me to get in contact with people in India. A lot easier than in the well fed countries of the west. With an open smile or a simple question you can break the ice. To talk with people is always possible, even on a short trip with the soul still on the road. People in India react on emotions, other than citizens in the wealthy regions of this planet. They react on curiosity and interes. I really feel well in the chaos of the Indian street, sweating in the heat, tired and thirsty. There are no hip cafes where I could take a break from the noise of the streets. To take fotos for 8 hours in Delhi or Mumbai after a long night flight doesn´t feel like a wellness program - but I feel alive! People I take fotos of, the contact with them, a smile, laughing with them without words and sometimes a critical look, gives me the impression to understand a little bit more how they live and how the feel. Then the streets of India are not only a stage, I´m an actor too on this stage. I love taking fotos in India, I love taking fotos of people in India.
It´s exhausting to act on this stage but for a very short time I´m part of this world and this fulfills me with deep satisfaction and joy.
Writing these lines the woman on the image above looks at me. The afternoon is alive again, I can smell Mumbai and I hear the kids laughing, running and teasing. What does the boy dream about on the image below? All of these images bring back the moments and all the people of India in these images continue to be present in my life.
Can you smell India? May be you can even recognize what are these people feeling and dreaming of? Maybe theses images can help a little bit to understand other cultures. We all are inhabitants of the only planet Earth we have. Then even short trips to India would make sense.
