A sense of the environment. Locals have painted the walls portraying so to say The garden of Eden or the Nandan Kanan. A cycle zips past at a zebra crossing creating a graphic pattern. At a zebra crossing, man’s shirt copies the pattern. A back alley. The iconic Ambassador car passes between handcarts. A clay modellers studio displays Nehru and other models while a cycle leans on the wall outside signifying elapsed time!

This website displays my photographs in themes (pages) of Banaras published in my book Time in Banaras,of urban Environment in Downtown, photographs of Kolkata and other Cities, Portraits being Some of my Friends I would Like You to Meet and Portfolio, of pictures not of any particular themes but from my minds eye!

In adolescence I found I could replicate the real world in my camera to create my own world. With this discovery I fell in love with photography a life long enigma that I have still to outgrow. As I grew up in Kolkata with an affection for its chaotic beauty, I also experienced the love of diversity of India. This unique experience and memory of this fascination is within me and my fondness of this place- this is my place.  I chose to photograph here. An autodidact I read whatever I could on photography and published books were rare. . But I felt a vacuum in my work and only when I saw the print exhibitions of Cartier Bresson, Lee Friedlander , Raghubir Singh and several others that I found a new direction. In a way it was a point of departure. I concentrated in black and white, became sensitive about the light and the way these masters used the wide angle lens and framing of the subject. My work went through a sea change as I approached subjects on the street and moved away from pretty images.

I do hope you will like the pictures and form your own experience. Please do not forget to leave your comments .

Publications

In 2016 my book Time in Banaras was published from Kolkata containing black and white street photographs of Banaras. Dr Partho Mitter was kind enough to write the foreward.

Important exhibitions and shows.

Since then I have had more than 15 one man shows and a few group shows

My first one man show was held at the NCPA Gallery, in Mumbai in August 2000, People and Places comprising 50 black and white images. Outlook Magazine commented ” a must for those in business of collecting and taking photographs”

In later years participation included at Vadhera Gallery in 2009 in their show Click curated by Sunil Gupta, in 2010 at Gallery 21 (Cima) group show curated by Christopher Taylor, Annual Art Fair 2009 , Participated in Contemporary Art Gallery show at Hong Kong,and Art Fair organised by the Birla Academy in 2014. In 2017 participated in the 50/50 Photography festival (15 photographs)organised by the Birla Academy and the Kolkata Photo festival in 2019.