India | Nomadically Curious Visual Thoughts

A Barefoot Metaphor: China vs. India

NOTE FROM JONAH: This is the continuation of a photo series from India. If you’re just joining us, here’s what you’ve missed:

While shoes aren’t completely necessary in life and I generally prefer not to wear them, in places like India — you’d think it would be a good idea to wear them given the general state of cleanliness in the massive subcontinent. This cleanliness factor and some crazy super bacterias floating around combined with the various animals that share space with the human population, it would seem like shoes are a good idea.

However, the Indian population certainly doesn’t think so.

While traveling across India, I was constantly amazed about how many people weren’t wearing shoes. In both rural and urban areas tons of people seemed to think the ground was enough shoe for them. As someone who has lived and traveled in the South Pacific, I’m quite used to the barefoot way of life. I’ve seen people walk across fire or develop calluses on their feet so strong they could walk on coral reef that would tear my feet to shreds. However, I’ve not seen so many people in urban environments develop calluses like the people of India.

So what do barefeet have to do with China?

I think some of this behavior can certainly be attributed to poverty. People aren’t wearing shoes, because they can’t afford them. This is not the only reason, but I think its safe to say when you see a barefoot child collecting trash of the train tracks, he doesn’t have any shoes.

This is a bit strange because any day of the week you can read a story about India’s booming economy. However, unlike in China the impact of this boom doesn’t seem to trickle down to the impoverished population’s feet.

I’ve mentioned earlier, my natural inclination to compare India and China. What do they have in common? They are enormous countries both in population and in physical size. They both have rapidly developing economies which would leed one to believe “things are better there” now then in previous times. And in fact, they are.

Although I wasn’t in China or India twenty or thirty years ago, the impact of China’s growing economy is very visual. While the income distribution is certainly not equal, from rural areas of Anhui to small cities in TIbet to desertified lands in Inner Mongolia or even the state of public bathrooms in Beijing, you can really see China has created massive infrastructure improvements and increased living standards for an enormous population.

I’m sure there are many in China walking around barefoot; however, walking around Beijing or any other major city I don’t really see that. In Delhi and beyond, you continually do.

Although this is a small metaphor that refers to the general living conditions of people from both of these “booming” countries the hint of truth in it might shed light on governmental and social constructions of both countries.

China’s transformation from pre-cultural revolution days to now has not necessarily been a smooth one, and certainly there are many issues that still need to be ironed out, including many human rights issues. However, the China’s communist model vs. India’s democratic model combined with the caste system certainly produced different results.

I certainly don’t claim to be an expert on Indian or Chinese history, politics or sociology but from the visual perspective, these countries and their developmental states couldn’t be more different, with or without shoes. Beyond policy obviously many other societal behaviors and practices (religion, environment, physical space, history) are key indicators when comparing these two countries, the governmental building blocks of democratic India don’t seem to be as strong as in China.

India in a Row

NOTE FROM JONAH: This is the continuation of a photo series from India. If you’re just joining us, here’s what you’ve missed:

While looking back from the thousands of pictures I took in India, I began to notice some patterns in unrelated images. This pattern came in the form of the row or a line. People, structures, shadows – even animals making geometric shapes across my frames. I find this happens frequently with travel images and while most of it is coincidence, when you put the images together you can make some fun sequences. However, some of the images actually reveal some behaviors in culture that actually show something about a culture and place — even on a wide scale.

This might be seen in the way a person rests while on a job. It might be the distance in which people walk apart from each other. In other cases, just two squirrels passing food together creates a line across an image.

While in India I was focused on video production for a story (that’s still in the works), the stills that came out of the trip revealed some fun rows or lines. While these images don’t have much of any other purpose (both thematically or financially) I can give them a home here. So — without any further need for words, I give you India in a Row.

Varanasi in a Row

Monkeys in a Row

Turban in a Row

Squirrels in a Row

Workers in a Row

Reflection in a Row

Ladies in a Row

A View, In a Row

Shadows in a Row

Taking a Picture, In a Row

Students in a Row

Wedding, In a Row

Boarding a Train, In a Row

Sitting in a Row

The Science of the Reel

Do video journalists need showreels? While I don’t know the answer to this question, for the past two years I’ve gone with —yes. However, the science of creating a (show)reel is seemingly far more complicated than one might believe.

Showreels have traditionally been made by cameraman, DP’s and those of us in the photography industry that find themselves on the film side of things. However, as I explained recently, video journalists, cinematic news photographers and documentary makers are certainly in a gray area between film and traditional video journalism.

When DP’s, directors and producers need cameramen its normal for them to request to see a reel. Since going freelance, I’ve had weekly requests for these from various people around China. However, it would not be so normal for a newspaper or magazine to ask to see a reel. So if you work in news photography, why would you make one and what are the challenges?

WHY: With converging media, its certainly becoming easier for photographers to jump from one industry to another. If you can film a news clip, chances are you might be useful as a cameraman in motion picture or documentary. So having this tool together is useful when someone is in your office asking for it.

WHAT: Now comes the tricky part — what do you put in your reel? I’ve found this tricky because it really depends on who you are showing it to. In many ways, this creates the possible need for more than one reel. You might have one to show documentary makers and another for a commercial client. Further more, you might need another one to show your ability with motion graphics or post production work. If your video has too much post production, it might reflect negatively if the inquiry is for documentary where the look is supposed to be more natural.

While last year I was doing much more still photography, the product became more of a photography show with small video clips embedded. This year I’ve been much more focused in video production and created the entire film with just video. If you notice, the footage kind of shows a cultural and developing world theme. I tried to add some clips of people from different countries to show a larger demographic of who I work with (westerners, developing world peoples and indigenous peoples). However, does this peg me or ‘type cast’ me? And if it does, am I ok with that since this is the type of work I want to be doing? I’ll ponder those questions and get back to you …

SEQUENCE: If you’ve figured out which content you want to include in your reel, you next need to decide how to order it. Since its mixed footage and in many ways simply eye candy — putting the images in an order that logically makes sense might be different for everyone. I’ve been trying to make mini sequences that flow together from one to the next. However, the logic behind these sequences and the order in which they appear is quite subjective. Trying to find logic in this can be difficult.

SOUND: Music is another tricky part. The song I used this year from Hanggai I personally love. However, its pretty distinct and different than what most chose.

Most of my friends’ reels and reels I see online use relatively ambient electronic music. By doing this you certainly push the focus to your images. For me however, I’m involved in production and photography. So I wanted the music and images to compliment each other in making a self contained visual demo of what type of imagery and films I’m interested in producing.

If one does chose this route, you become a bit a risk of offending someone (musically). While I like Hanggai, I can certainly imagine someone not liking it. So by choosing something more subtle, you might be a little more safe of not offending anyone.

I however, aren’t really trying to be subtile with my images. I prefer high impact images. But, this is certainly a style thing as well as a time-and-place thing.

NEVER ENDING FOOTAGE: Perhaps the most difficult thing is trying to figure out when it is done. I’m always creating new images and therefor, feel like I can always replace images with better images. In many ways, this means — you are never done. The images keep coming. So I think its always a work in progress. The version above is a third draft and I have a fourth draft in the works already.

If you’re interested — comparing last years reel to this years I think it shows a larger change in my visual direction and a bigger push towards video production. But for a quick look at 2010 – check out this video in still photography form.

Good Light and Good Luck: The Taj Mahal

NOTE FROM JONAH: This is the continuation of a photo series from India. If you’re just joining us, here’s what you’ve missed:

There’s some things in life you are supposed to see. One of these places is India’s Taj Mahal. While working on a story last month, I was in the neighborhood of the mighty Taj and although I hate massive tourist attractions, lines, groups of tourists and the rif-raf that goes along with said ingredients — I thought it best to put my negativisms asside and go see the iconic mausoleum.

And while over 11,000 people visit the marble palace every day — I decided to attempt to avoid the crowds and woke up before the sun did. I thought avoiding the crowds at the Taj would be impossible — however, I was actually presently surprised with my luck this March 5th of 2011.

When you leave your hotel in Agra (home of the Taj) its hard to believe a place could be that special. Agra itself is far from exciting. Tourism has overrun the city and marble workers, rug makers and fake jewelers seem to be a dime a dozen. Streets are crowded and lines for the Taj are said to be a kin to Disneyland.

However, on this day of March 5th, I beat the lines and was greeted with some fantastic light. In this shot above, I actually managed to pull a frame of the entire East side of the Taj – sans people.

In case you are wondering which lenses to pack while visiting the Taj — this was shot with a Canon EF 24mm f/1.4L II USM (f/4, 1/1000, unexposed .3 stops, ISO 100) which coincidently will frame almost the entire width of the Taj from the side (without too much distortion).

Although I’m partial to the “golden hour” sunset light, the pink hue of sunrise light combined with the white marble of the Taj Mahal makes for some pretty fantastic hues, that kind of reach pink on the color spectrum. As the sun rose and the marble structure illuminated, colors around the structure, property and waters began to light up with some fantastic variation.

Light blue reflections off the still pools of the mausoleum, pink hues from the dome of the Taj and the never get’s old “golden backed silhouette” trick, toward the rising sun. While this is an easy trick (f/2.8, 1/3200, underexposed -0.7, ISO 100), arriving at the Taj Mahal early will allow you to get some pretty cool shaped silhouettes.

While getting good light involves a bit of luck and avoiding crowds requires basic logic, finding unusual frames is a bit trickier when it comes to photographing international symbols. The Taj Mahal is considered one of the most beautiful buildings in the world, and thus has been photographed probably from every angle with every lens possible. While its possible to create some more unusual frames, it was hard for me to not get drawn toward the iconic images of this building (i.e. the top photo).

On an annoying level, photographers are not allowed to bring in tripods or even big bags to the site. This makes video possibilities tricky if not impossible. I shot some video off the marbled grounds that came out pretty neat; however, in general you can count as your hands being your tripod. While this is annoying, it would probably be more annoying to be next to 11,000 people who all also had tripods taking picture of the same thing at the same time.

So — One more sight crossed off the always expanding global “to see” list. A couple more posts on the way from India before the photo blog returns to the Philippines. And with that I wish you “Good Light and Good Luck.”

Bake for 3 minutes and 37 seconds: add China, Tibet, Nepal, the Philippines, India and a tablespoon of Mongolia

As we near to the middle of 2011, I wanted to pause the photo blog and share with you some images from recent trips from the Year of the Rabbit. While some of these images have been published, most of this footage hasn’t quite made it to its final resting home. Ergo, this is a bit of a teaser of what’s to come. Some of these images you may have already seen from the recent project The Fate of Old Beijing: The Vanishing Hutongs. Other clips come from works in progress from India, the Philippines, Beijing and Inner Mongolia. Other parts are snippets of video from Nepal and Tibet that still haven’t found a home.

Music for this microproject has been graciously released by a fantastic Beijing based band of Mongolian heritage called Hanggai. Hanggai is a great example of a band blending traditional and modern sounds and instrument to create a very unique sound. While my images this year are largely concentrating on cultural issues of modernization in the developing world, Hanggai’s ethno-blend fit well in mind. The track “Gobi Road” comes from their new album “He Who Travels Far.” I absolutely love both this album and their first. You can purchase the album here.

未来看着会很好玩 ~ Wèi Lái Kàn Zhe Huì Hěn Hǎo Wán.

I’m currently in production of 18 different videos – with client’s geographical locations ranging from Beijing to London to New York. So to say the least, I’m busy. While this isn’t a new thing for those of you that know me, I can tell you balancing 18 video projects whose languages go from English to Chinese, to Hindi to Mongolian, to French to Tagalog is not the easiest thing in the world (just imagine trying to get everyone’s name spelled right). While some of these projects are independent, others I have the hutong production gang back together for a series of environmental films from Inner Mongolia, again working with journalist Kit Gillet and the tremendously helpful translator Ami Li.

I’m grounding myself in Beijing for a good bit to wrap up these unfinished projects; however, I’m still taking still photo assignments as they role in every week. This blog will wrap up the India travel photography series soon and then head toward the Philippines before heading to the deserts of Inner Mongolian. As normal, assignments from China will be intermixed with my normal visual, social and journalistic bantar.

Big things are planned for this summer – so stay tuned – and in the meantime, please enjoy some new images and Hanggai’s music.

Cheers,

Jonah

Indian Failwhale Tiger Tracking

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NOTE FROM JONAH: This is the continuation of a photo series from India. If you’re just joining us, here’s what you’ve missed:

And just like that — your back in India (at least in the digitally vicarious sense).

After leaving the sandy deserts of Jodhpur, Rajasthan I figured since I was in the neighborhood, I should probably stop and see the Taj Mahal. However, on my way I decided to split my trip up and stop in Ranthambore National Park — to once again, attempt to track a (alleged) Bengal Tiger.

And once again, I was thwarted by nature. Or perhaps, it’s just harder to find a wild tiger than one would believe based upon the tourist literature to Ranthambore National Park. While in Nepal, I searched for the enormous cats by elephant and by foot, in India, I searched by open air jeep.

As a method of searching for wildlife, the jeep seems highly ineffective to me. I was up at sunrise driving through the Rajisthani park, and its hard to believe that tigers would want to go toward a noisy car.

Hence today’s title “Indian Failwhale Tiger Tracking.” If you are unfamiliar with the Failwhale, you apparently don’t use Twitter. And while its hard for me to admit that everyone doesn’t use Twitter, I will briefly explain the Failwhale with a little help from our good friends at the Urban Dictionary. The Failwhale is:

DEFINITION: The image of a whale being carried by a number of birds that appears when the Twitter website is overloaded or has failed. Failwhale appears to now have his/her own fanclub.

WORD ORIGIN: From fail + whale (probably for rhyming purposes).
i.e.: Sad that Twitter had failed just when he needed it most, he was somewhat consoled by the appearance of his beloved Failwhale.

After this quick lesson in nascent Twitter vocabulary that has moved past the Twittersphere and into the global vernacular, hopefully we are all on the same page now. And although I didn’t see any tigers and I saw no real whales in Ranthambore National Park — I did see some wildlife along the way, including myriad monkeys, bird life, deers and some boars with very human like eyes.

While I didn’t see any big game, the park is known for its leopard, nilgai, dhole, wild boar, sambar, hyena, sloth bear and chital. I’m not sure if it requires some type of skill set or just simply more time and patience to see this stuff but its certainly not easy. In Nepal’s Chitwan National Park I hired a guide and we spent eight hours walking through three meter high grass (in the rain) following an infinite number of paw prints that seemed to simply go in circles.

When the amazonian grass got annoying to the point where there could have been a tiger two feet away from me and I would have had no idea, I rented an elephant (as you do … ) and road around high above the grass looking down for the elusive tiger.

From what I know about cats, be them big ones or small ones they are certainly much quicker than most animals and don’t seem to have the need for attention, unless of course they want it. So tracking these animals seems more like dumb luck than skill, but I’d gladly here the opinion of anyone who actually knows what they are talking about, rather than my circumstantial evidence.

So after my second failure this year to track a tiger, I moved on to the Taj Mahal as buildings seemed much easier to track than wild cats. The India photo series picks up at this magnificent building with some gorgeous light next.

Gender inequality in a Blue City

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NOTE FROM JONAH: This is the continuation of a photo series from India. If you’re just joining us, here’s what you’ve missed:

From the roof of Beijing to hutong screening drama, the blog now rewinds a couple weeks where I spent some time in perhpas the bluest city I’ve ever seen. Found in India’s Thar Desert, Jodhpur is Rajasthan’s second largest city. And while from afar, it looks like its built of legos — this historic city is home to many forts, temples, ancient palaces — as well as nearly 1 million people.

Its not to hard to see why this place is called the Blue City, however, its also known as the Sun City — and usually has sunny days year round. A thick stone and mud wall surrounds the old blue city of Jodhpur. This gives the city a very medieval feeling.

The light blue tint which covers the city makes the old city environment a little more happy than other places I visited in India. However, whether the baby blue tint has an actual correlation to happiness is another question. And from what I learned in my time in Rajasthan — it certainly doesn’t seem like it.

While I worked on multiple stories in this city, what I heard over and over again concerned the general state of woman’s rights in Rajasthan. While this is a global issue, I have not seen the obvious inequality so blatant as I did in India. While in Jodhpur, I got to see and hear first hand the reality Rajasthani woman.

In many communities, woman are not allowed out of their houses, allowed to earn money or given the chance at education. When they do earn money, it is very common for them to have no power over where the income goes. In many ways, many woman living in both urban and rural environments seemed to have little or no control over their fate.

From arranged marriages and an evil dowry system combined with the caste system — problems for woman can be deadly. I spent time in some woman’s empowerment centers around Jodhpur and learned a lot about this sad reality.

A reader of this blog, shared with me the thoughts of an Indian colleague. He is a young IAS commissioner who is very concerned with the future of his country. He offers us these thoughts:

“India has the 2nd largest Muslim population in the world; it’s GDP is growing at 8-9% per year; that it faces 3 extreme issues that will keep it from leading the world in spite of amazing intellectual talent: corruption, lack of discipline and casteism.”

While this reader refers to some general problems – the state of gender inequality in Rajasthan, combined with the already messy reality of India certainly made me think quite hard in this desert state and about these desert people.

Let’s say you come from the lowest caste and you are female. From birth, you have very little rights and you have no ability to climb to any status in society based on your caste. You wouldn’t even be allowed to eat near someone from a higher caste. Then within your caste, you are subject to complete male domination — and not just from your husband or father, but from any male including siblings or strangers. From India Parenting.com:

Even modern, well-educated families start saving up money for their daughter’s dowry as soon as she is born, so what can one expect from the uneducated masses, whose only form of education is tradition? When demands for dowry are not met, the bride is subject to torture, and often even killed. The reason many parents don’t want to have daughters is because of the dowry they will have to shell out at her marriage, and the stress they go through due to never ending demands from her in-laws.

It is illegal to check the gender of a fetus in Rajasthan specifically because so many female babies were being aborted or worse fates came to the carrying mothers. Dowry’s are now so high, that many females become indebted to their daughter’s husband’s family. While my main purpose in India was to examen fair trade (still coming), while on the story I learned that 70% of fair trade workers were female. This landed me in several scenarios where the two stories intersected.

While I working on the fair trade story I conducted a series of interviews with woman in Rajasthan and at Woman’s Empowerment Centers about gender inequality and how they see their reality. After I finish up the fair trade video, I’m going to put together another small video on this subject. Interestingly enough — fair trade and woman’s rights actually have a lot to do with each other.

Holy Cow!

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NOTE FROM JONAH: This is the continuation of a photo series from India. If you’re just joining us, here’s what you’ve missed:

Please excuse my second pun in this photo series — but after weeks of travel in India, the integration of cows into general society has become is just far too interesting to not comment on.

To put it bluntly: There are cows everywhere. In the streets. In houses. In alleys. In waterways. In stores. On highways, squares and parks. In fact, the only place you won’t find cows — is on your plate. However, none of the Indians seem to even notice as denoted in the 10 minute timelapsed 30 second video above. And there’s certainly no better way to evaluate cows in India, by accompanying it with some circus music. As the cow hangs out in this market in Jodhpur, people go about there business circumnavigating the cows. Kids play, cars drive, vendors sell their goods — but the cow is almost invisible to them.

Cows wander the alleys freely as do a number of dogs, chickens, donkeys and your occasional camel. However the cows certainly dominate the population and physical space they take up. This integration of cows in urban society is different than seeing some stray dogs (which there are plenty of as well) in Southeast Asia. Mostly, because they seem to be of the ‘enormous variety’ of cow. Enormous beasts are cruising around like they own the place. As an outsider its very confusing.

At first I wondered if they were “stray cows” or if their owners were watching.

One Indian man told me the cows all belong to people. In the morning they are let out to find water and food and they will return at night. This seems amazing to me — especially given the confusing architectural layout of some Indian towns like Varanasi. Still, I’m confused though why the cow would return if its owners weren’t feeding it. To my knowledge, this is why animals will come home.

This example, also gives you an idea of how “public” a restroom is in India as a cow watches over the urinals.

While I continued to get lost in the never ending series of alleys in Varanasi, the cows can all wander to the Ganges and back through the alleys to the owners home, unaccompanied without trouble.

So while the cows seem to be relatively smart compared to those cows in my home state of Vermont — they do play a significant role in Indian culture. Indian Culture Q&A gives four reasons why cows are sacred in India.

(1) Indians consume milk on a daily basis, and the cow as a provider of milk, is equated to one’s mother (hence the expression Gomäta = mother cow)

(2) Traditionally, Indians had cows in every household. They were part of the family, with names and personalities. Just like one would not hurt/eat their pets, the Indians did not hurt the cows and respected them.

(3) The cow has a special role in the Hindu mythologies; Kamadhenu is a wish-fulfilling cow. A cow is also depicted as vehicle of several deities.

(4) Many social reform movements in India (Jainism, Buddhism, the Bhakti Movement, Gandhi’s non-violent movement) advocated non-violence, and no cruelty to animals. So in India, other animals also (like elephants, mice, monkeys) are considered holy.

From sea to sand: Welcome to Rajasthan

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NOTE FROM JONAH (1): The Fate of Old Beijing: A Vanishing World Documentary Screening & Dialog – Saturday, March 19.

NOTE FROM JONAH (2): This is the continuation of a photo series from India. If you’re just joining us, here’s what you’ve missed:

Traveling any distant in India can pretty quickly help you realize how geographically diverse this place is. After a couple days shooting on the Ganges, I took a short 27 hour train ride across the country. If you travel 27 hours West on India’s fine transit system from the religiously humid environment of Varanasi — you will get out in the dry desert of Rajasthan.

Rajasthan is India’s most Western state, with the Thaar desert connecting India and Pakistan. Coming from Varanasi — the visual difference is immense. Muslim populations are much greater although Hindi is still the dominant culture. Bodies of water seem few and far between. While cows still lay in the streets, camels also join the bovine community.

Camels clumsily trot down the streets while locals shield themselves from the sun with enormous head wraps. I’m hear during February and its already hot. I can’t imagine this place in the summer but I’m told temperatures soar over 40 degrees daily.

One great thing about Rajasthan — the mustache is in. I don’t think WWD cares much on this fashion trend, but almost all man have enormous mustaches or enormous beards like the gentleman above. Photographically, this is just fun.

In general, this part of India felt like I was in the Middle East more than Asia. Yet it is at the cross of South Asia, Central Asia and the mid-East — and those characteristics can all be seen.

Some cities I visited were dense — reminding me a lot of where I was living in Algeria — in the city of Oran. Houses are built not only next to each other, but also on top of each other. Tiny alleys connect the city creating a maze of homes, businesses and communities.

The basics of Rajasthan via Wikipedia:

Rājasthān (Rajasthani: राजस्थाण, pronounced [raːdʒəsˈt̪ʰaːn] ( listen)) (the land of colours[1]) the land of Rajasthanis, is the largest state of the Republic of India by area. It encompasses most of the area of the large, inhospitable Great Indian Desert (Thar Desert), which has an edge paralleling the Sutlej-Indus river valley along its border with Pakistan. It is one of the most beautiful states of India which attracts very large number of domestic and foreign tourists in India. The state is bordered by Pakistan to the west, Gujarat to the southwest, Madhya Pradesh to the southeast, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana to the northeast and Punjab to the north. Rajasthan covers an area of 132,150 sq mi or 342,239 km². The proportion of the state’s total area to the total area of the country is 10.41 per cent.

While I spent time with these desert people, the colors of the culture and atmosphere never seized to amaze me. Next on the agenda, the bluest city I’ve ever been.

Varanasi वाराणसी: Full Photographic Spectrum

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NOTE FROM JONAH: This is the continuation of a photo series from India. If you’re just joining us, here’s what you’ve missed:

Along the banks of the Ganges sits ancient Varanasi. While the focus of the city is certainly on the river, the city is connected by an intricate system of alleys small enough to make Beijing’s hutongs look like highways.

The city structure reminded me a little bit of the UNESCO World Heritage area Casbah in old city of Algiers, Algeria. However, the enormous Indian population makes these alleys seem even smaller.

The alleys don’t form a grid. Dead ends seem plentiful. And just like in Kathmandu, temples, residences and commerce are all found in the same place — often in the same structure.

Photographically this place is pretty amazing. Pilgrims come to the holy waters, wander the ancient alleys and pray at some of India’s oldest temples. Some of the world’s most colorful brides (and some of the most obviously unhappy brides) come to Varanasi to fulfil their prearranged marriage.

Poverty in Varanasi is rampant. With poverty always comes interesting faces. With these interesting faces also comes some pretty big annoyances and dangers.

Its hard to walk 10 feet along the Ghats without running into a beggar. They come in all forms: from mothers to children, infants to old man. People are lined up looking for handouts from foreigners and Indian tourists.

This has been a problem throughout India for me. Everywhere I go people (especially children) are asking for money. With the massive Indian populaiton this can become a bit overwhelming. For photographers this can be a bigger problem.

Many people are demanding money for photographs. However, the Indian method of this is to approach you and ask if you will photograph them, followed by demanding money. People certianly approach you in friendly ways, however 90% of them are looking for money.

Beyond the beggars, Varanasi also seems to be full of various scam artists. “From which country do you come from?” Is the question often asked as you pass by strangers on the street. While the question is innocent in nature, 99% of these people have an agenda. Maybe they want to be your tour guide, maybe they want to coheres you into their shops or maybe they have something else to sell — but inevitably almost all of this friendlyness has a backstory — and usually not one you want to hear.

This puts tourists in an aqward position. People say ‘hi’ to you or ‘from which country do you come from’ and you have the choice to answer them or not. If you ignore them, you don’t have to deal with their scam. However, I feel like I am being rude as a visitor by not entertaining them a little bit. If you do respond, you open the door to having someone follow you around and pester you for long periods of time.

My method and approach to this common Asian occurrence is to respond to them with a little sarcasm. Let them know, you know their scam but chat them up a bit. Normally, when they see you are hip to their plan — they will bugger off. And in the slight chance someone is just being friendly and actually wants to know “from which country do you come from” — perhaps you’ve made a friend.

While I am on an assignment and therefor have a timeline and agenda here in India, I could only spend three days in this city. There seem to be so many hidden jewels of this place and so many interesting cultural happenings — you could spend months here. But this would not be my fate — as I would have to board a 27 hour train ride across the country to the deserts of Rajasthan.

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A Barefoot Metaphor: China vs. India

India in a Row

The Science of the Reel

Good Light and Good Luck: The Taj Mahal

Bake for 3 minutes and 37 seconds: add China, Tibet, Nepal, the Philippines, India and a tablespoon of Mongolia

Indian Failwhale Tiger Tracking

Gender inequality in a Blue City

Holy Cow!

From sea to sand: Welcome to Rajasthan

Varanasi वाराणसी: Full Photographic Spectrum

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