The Original Fast Food
Delhi, India 2009
Chandni Chowk is one of the oldest markets in Delhi and maybe the largest. It is crowded. The streets are crowded with people and vehicles and the shops are crowded with people and merchandise. It isn’t the place to go for window shopping, but it is fun to go on a “photo-walk”.
Indians seem to be a charming group and love having their photo taken, often running after you to pose for a portrait. These men were too busy baking bread in their tandoor oven to smile and pose. Perhaps, too, they were tired. They crouch on their heels all day, patting out the dough, slapping it against the sides of the blazing oven and then retreiving it a few seconds later. Hot, tiring and repetitive.
Everyone loves Naan. It’s kind of a thin, crispy, pizza-like, cracker-like bread with no topping. The next stall was serving plates of lentils or daal. Naan was used as a scoop for the lentils. A good and healthy lunch for ‘pure-veg’ patrons.
I entered several shops on my ‘photo-walk’. It takes a bit of nerve to get going…to walk in on people and start pointing your camera and then moving about to get the angle and waiting to get the action while being in everyone’s way. No wonder people just take a random shot and tell themselves, well, I’ve got a shot of that and mentally check it off their list.
Here, I used the freshly baked naan to establish foreground. There is a triangle formed between the bakers and the naan. There is action. You can see the baker on the left patting the dough into shape. And you see the resting balls of dough that the baker on the right has shaped. You get a sense of cooperation between the men. I had to darken the naan in order to encourage the viewer’s eye to travel between the points of the triangle. It’s up to you to emphasize what you want the viewer to notice.
Some photographers insist that they establish a “relationship” with their subject. I think they mean a smile or nod or showing the person their photo on the LCD screen. That is easy enough to do. Often then it will mean taking down an address and sending a photo later. I don’t mind that. In fact, I enjoy printing photos for people who may never have had a good portrait of themselves. I really do feel as if I have a relationship with them when I do that.