Face thefts at around Delhi

Photojournalism Candid, Street, Street Portraits, sniping, people photography, what do you call this....this act of pointing ur big gun at the poor passing faces and blam!! u keep them inside your memory card and then your hard disk. I call it street photography and inside my head I think I snipe. Well how does that feature as a photographic skill, i think in street it is more of the ability to spot the moment, capture that passing character, be invisible but document what you like and still make good images out of an ordinary moment. All of this put together makes street photography my all time favorite genre, the rush of moments and the rush of faces and characters, each one of them. However there is this small little debate that I often have with my own self, why do all street shots depict the poor and the dejected? is it for their emotionally charged value? Is it the smug pleasure of not being there in their shoes or is it that the cliched term "poor India" actually sells?
My first shot that fetched me my first ever online fame was of a little girl doing roadside gymnastics, it got selected on the Nat geo site. A little girl pushing her limits to get her daily wages and I shot it...is it the moment that caught the appreciation or the helplessness? Now I may sound like a complicated mind or a pretending moderate but these are actually a few questions I kept on asking myself. Then one day I realized why I would want to shoot such moments and faces, I think I know why I want to shoot the "poor India" and the only cause and right I have to intrude into their daily lives is to pay my small little ode to their spirits. Everyday our streets are flooded with men and women who step out their with the only cause in their hearts, to earn themselves and their families the meal for the month or the day, undefeated, undeterred and undaunted. It is hard to step out in the Delhi heat forget doing photography but these champions of everyday life manage to smile, pass a joke, have a moment and carry on with their bread earnings. Every photo I take of them and every photo thats sticks onto my flickr page or this blog is a testament of how true spirits can win the most one sided of battles everyday. I want to share a few shots that I have from some of the regular street shooting I do with my friends at Old Delhi. Pure face stealing and all faces of everyday winners.

All in a day's work! I will stick to this caption.

Pondering think tank

Confirmation needed now is it ?

Our storyteller at the junction


Not so happy and a Pitbullish look

The undefeated champion

The power of  indomitable spirits

Amongst a Million faces are faces which are one in a million

The usual companion

Lost in patterns


At the end of this long rant, I would really appreciate what your views would be.This was not a justification blog but a blog to do a bit of mindshare. As usual brick and bats are most welcome and please punch that comment box for me. Have a great weekend!


Shivaji