Check out this past Wednesdays highlights below. This week featured some turntable madness.
Check me out on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/amansridhar/
Spotlight #16 - The Cold Desert /
The picture here is honestly one of my favourites ever taken. I took this picture during a transitional phase in my photography.
I had always set myself the boundary of shooting 'real subjects' and not landscapes because I believed that the beauty of landscapes are very hard to capture, and never accurately capture the feeling of actually being there.
During my trip to Ladakh, I found myself shooting landscapes, but as an experiment to prove to myself that my theory was correct.
And then I got this shot
This was taken on our way to Lake Tsomiriri, a small little isolated lake in Eastern Ladakh that (for now) is away from the public eye.
As we were driving we passed by this smaller little pond, and it seemed like the stars had aligned perfectly because we had reached at the time when the lighting was gorgeous, the music was pumping us up, and our sleep deprivation and the high altitude were driving us up the wall.
This picture is always going to remind me of that experience - one that almost felt like an out of body one because of days of being on the road, and hours and hours in the jeep.
This picture, apart from simply being aesthetically pleasing is always going to take me back to those memories.
Panwaaris /
The Panwaari project is one I've been doing over the past few weeks.
The concept is really simple - I get pictures of the panwaaris I frequent the most.
There's no real story to each picture, however, the idea came to me a while back when I was thinking about business, and what it takes to achieve relative success in a chosen field.
It got me thinking about India and the local community around me - how there are literally thousands of small businesses that run everyday of the week. These workshops, chai stalls, panwaaris and auto drivers all go unnoticed because it's such a vibrant part of our culture that we just take them for granted.
The Panwaari project is the first of many that will serve to document culture that we seem to take lightly. In many ways, panwaaris are what make us who we are.
My motivation, as always, is just to document. I'm not going to take this in any political direction. I am just the medium that shares.
For non-hindi speakers, "Panwaaris" are the colloquial reference for cigarette stalls. The name comes from the snack paan, which is a huge part of our culture, but panwaaris today are department stores on wheels. More often than not any stall you see on the side of the road will get you anything from sodas to cigarettes to lighters to snacks.
Panwaaris in many ways are the spine to our local economy, and thus need to be documented.
Check out the project here - https://www.amansridhar.com/panwaari/
Boxout Wednesdays 027 /
Last week's Boxout was exactly what you'd want on a Wednesday night - check out the highlights below
Uber Stories - "Ashok" /
Note - The name has been changed for privacy reasons. He also did not want his picture to be taken. This was the best shot I had, so you have to excuse the quality of it. Quotes have been translated from Hindi
I remember that as soon as I got into the cab, I sensed that Ashok would be a prime target to talk to.
Within the first few seconds he had asked me about my night, and seemed friendly enough, but I could also sense that he was one of those drivers who took a lot of pride in his profession. There would be no messing about in his cab.
Luckily for him, he had me.
I was on my way back from a night out, and was more tired than anything else. I couldn't wait to get home, but this guy was a real chatterbox. I embraced it and went ahead and chatted to him about the usual stuff - how long his day had been, what his plans were after etcetera.
As we turned onto the main street, I heard him scoff. I looked around and saw a smallish sedan that had been absolutely battered from the back. Next to it, was a small crowd, and a few meters ahead was a BMW with its blinkers on.
I was able to clock what happened easily, and sure enough, so had Ashok.
"These rich cunts, driving around in their fancy cars think they own the streets." he said.
I mirrored his sentiment, but didn't say anything.
"Why they feel like they have to drive their cars after getting sloshed is beyond me." he continued. "What the fuck do they think cabs are for anyway?"
"You know how it is, man. They just want to feel like they own this city." I said.
"And they look down at the rest of us. Fucking cunts." he spat.
I asked him about the times he's had one of these people as his customers.
"No, I've never had one of them. Firstly, because they don't think they need us, but when they do they're always so fucked up drunk that I refuse to take them. I don't want to have to take care of some drunk bitch on the side of the road."
Fair enough, I thought.
He ranted on a bit more, but slowly he tailed away. I was glad I had him as my driver. It made the ride home seem like a fast one.
Check out the other stories here.