Bike Repair Shop

Another timeless monochrome from India and from long ago, so scanned from film.

It was taken in a tiny village called Aihole in Karnataka State which is blessed with the remains of dozens of temples from the sixth and seventh centuries.

This bike repair shed serves a rural community, and perhaps doesn’t get as much passing trade as the liquor store just up the street, but the condition of the roads must cause quite a few punctures and bent wheels.

Bike Repair Shop

 

Grounded in the Ganges

This is a simple scene, but telling. The barefoot boatmen wade through the detritus on the river bank. A string of beads lies in the water, maybe carried downstream from the funeral ghats just up river. The decaying brickwork and the old boat showing that entropy is having its way.

A scene on the river Ganges, The Ganga, Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India.

Grounded in the Ganges

 

Workshop mono

A street scene captured in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh. It’s sometimes difficult to read peoples reactions to having their picture taken.

Is it suspicion, fear, annoyance? Does he think that he’s been caught out?

I’m pretty sure that I would feel all of those and more….

Do we have the right to intrude? Should we reserve the right for people to see only our good side, or should we use our camera to catalogue and record even the negative and less than ideal conditions? I almost decided to delete this picture.

But life can be dour…..

Workshop mono

 

Waiting

A street portrait taken in Glasgow.

I like how working in monochrome encourages a more formal and studied approach to picture making. Balancing the tones and cropping to enhance the formal elements of placement and division is a very satisfying activity. The unruly diagonals always add a touch of tension, don’t you think?

Waiting