Not long back from a very rewarding stint in Mumbai … India’s pulse …
Worked on a few potential photo stories … some with more success than others … and formed friendships with two great experienced Indian photographers.
S Anand Singh … freelance photojournalist and ‘Mr Varanasi’ … made the long trek from Benares to act as my invaluable fixer. Anand introduced me to Mumbai photojournalist legend Srienivas Akella (Srini for short!). Srini is a former associate photo editor at the Indian Express and was the driving force behind the Solaris Images picture agency. The two of ’em introduced me to members of the Mumbai media photo community …. some of which I found I had ‘connections’ to … and the delights of the Mumbai Press Club. They were also tireless in working through our pretty packed picture agenda.
Anand and Srini guided me through the complexities of the amazing Mumbai urban train system (which it is said moves approximately 9 million people every day) as we traversed the mega city to venues that I may never have discovered.
As I havn’t yet managed to edit all the work that I made in a hectic but thoroughly enjoyable visit … I’ve posted below just a few images from some of those stories we worked on. There’s a pic (bottom) from a far too short, minutes long, visit to a Kushti (Indian wrestling) akhara (would have liked much more time to document properly … despite the fact that many photographers have worked on this before), an image (second from top) from the Dahi Handi festival celebrating a young Lord Krishna, one from a set on dabbawallahs (the men who deliver the cities lunches) … and just one (top) from a pic essay I am very fond of … “The Typewriter Wallahs of Mumbai” … which I’ll post on my web site soon. There will be more at a later date …
Thank You Anand and Srini for making it all possible . Really looking forward to working with you again in the future …
(Stop Press … Srini is planning to use his vast experience of India to organise photo tours for photographers to visit the subcontinent from Australia . Stay tuned for more news on that … )
Images © Brian Cassey