Showing posts with label India. Show all posts
Showing posts with label India. Show all posts

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

The "Amby"









I just picked up a copy of Raghubir Singh's book of photographs "A Way into India" It was his last project before his death in 1999 at age 58 from a heart attack. Although Cartier Bresson is often cited as a mentor, Singh couldn't imagine only shooting in black & white; instead he explored the vibrant colors of his homeland, often, as one writer points out, through the mostly white little Ambassador car.


Saturday, February 16, 2008

Paisley Groove






Back to India - I have posted a little Indian music from Sonific to set the mood. Turn it on and listen if you'd like.
Waking up our first morning in Delhi at the Oberoi Maidens Hotel was a perfect beginning. While there are more modern and luxurious hotels in Delhi, this was like being in a bit of old India as the photo above perhaps gives you an idea. Long hallways lead to rooms with high ceilings and ours was a suite with a living room and bedroom and a huge deep tub to soak away the two day trip from San Francisco, via New York and London. Breakfast was a buffet of Indian and Continental dishes served off the garden . There were fresh fruits and juices with toast or eggs made to order and yogurt with granola. Waiters served tea or coffee while we read the newspaper and planned our day.
After breakfast we met our driver and our guide Sateesh who would show us the Red Fort and narrow streets of Old Delhi. If you ever decide to visit or if you already have, then you must know that there is a lot of taking one's shoes off and putting one's shoes back on in India. There is also a lot of tea drinking, but that will come later.
Pyramids of fruit piled on tables invited us to sample the wares, but every tourist guide warned against the freshly squeezed citrus or ripe guavas blushing from their stalls.

Friday, February 8, 2008

Raja Ravi Varma




I found this image of a painting by Raja Ravi Varma that I happened to find a hand-painted reproduction of in a little shop in Jaipur. Olivia and I were actually buying tea and incense in the shop next door when we stumbled upon her. I had just bought a Rizzoli edition of Varma's work and couldn't believe my stroke of luck finding a canvas to roll up carefully and bring home in my suitcase. It is now framed by my friends at Sausalito Framing and hanging on my wall looking like it was found in a museum. For me it is a reminder of how India blends the sensuality of its mythologies and the formalism brought to its shores by the British and the Portuguese.