Meandering Along Mumbai’s Shores
When a photo walk is a walk and a walk is a photo opportunity.
Photographers who practice street photography are fond of contacting one another, seemingly out of the blue, for the opportunity to break the monotony of going it alone. In my experience, many of these outings are not as productive photo sessions I conduct on my own but they fulfill other purposes, one of which is belonging to a loosely-knit community of global photographers.
No matter what you like to call it, street photography is a practice. At its core is the journey. And apart from our everyday senses, a special emphasis is placed on capturing and taming countless rogue photons to produce images.
Like many other artistic pursuits, photography is can be done alone or with two or more individuals. A quick Google search would reveal many global street photography collectives, many based around a common city or country, or even a sub-genre, like black-and-white photography. Some collectives are private and inclusive. Others will accept just about anyone who has a camera and willing to adhere to a few agreed upon principles and rules.
But for many of us, including myself, photography is a solitary pursuit that’s occasionally punctuated with random photo walks with strangers at home and around the globe. I don’t belong to a collective, not by a conscious decision but by the fact that I haven’t been invited to one. To complicate matters further, my transformation from mere photographer to mere visual artist has changed my perspective entirely on what street photographer is to me. Unfortunately, there are even fewer photographers who take to sourcing street images for their art. To the uninitiated, this could be a positively boring experience to share.
I’m happy to say that I remain a traditionalist as far as the wanting to shoot with others goes. I still love a good photo walk, with a stranger, friend, or workshop clients.
2022 - Danda Village, Mumbai.
On July 3, I went on a photo walk with someone who contacted me after reading one of my blog posts. That in itself was nice to hear, especially on the tail-end (hopefully) of the global pandemic that has killed the joy for countless photographers during the worst of Covid’s reign. Like many photo walks I go on when there’s no real agenda, I only have a general idea of what’s going to be out there, especially on a rainy monsoon day.
2022 - Danda Village, Mumbai.
The plan was simple enough: meet at Juhu Beach and walk south past the jetties and cross the metal pedestrian bridge that serves as the backdoor to Danda Village and Khar West. From there, continue walking south as time and weather permitted. It turns out that Ansh and I were able to reach Chimbai Village and the start of Bandstand in Bandra before calling it quits and hitting a local cafe.
But I get ahead of myself. The first thing to catch my attention at just after sunrise at Juhu was a group of men kneeling in a large tidal pool just north of the main entrance to Juhu Chowpatty. It turns out they had been there for some time, probably hours prior to our reaching at 6 am. They were hunting for small shell fish, intended for market, I presumed.
This happened to be my first — what I now refer to as traditional street photography — time shooting street since I fell head-long into ICM photography after solely pursuing a career as an artist at the end of March this year. Apart from a conscious decision, instinct took over. I had to shoot the scenes I was seeing “straight.” It was then that I realized that I’d never stop shooting traditional street photography, no matter what my photographic pursuits. There would always be room for street photography as a meditation, practice, hobby, pleasant distraction, or time-kill.
Below are a few more images from the photo walk further south from the shellfish-hunters.
