travel snaps

[ralph]

i spent some time in india in january, staying with my in-laws in kolkata. here are some travel snaps from this trip:

http://www.ralphballerstadtphotography. ... snaps.html

cheers,
ralph

[H.Arche]

Another very cool batch from India, Ralph, and I hadn't gotten over the last one yet. In the light of a lot of recent discussion about the changing nature of the street/city, it makes me think that the subcontinent may be one of 'the last great places' (to paraphrase Hemingway, who was thinking about another kind of hunting).

'dog' is a knockout.

[ralph]

thanks, Harvey!

i agree that india is great for convential street photography, but also for all sorts of other type of photography, as the country has such colorful urban appearance and social life. even the abundant garbage everywhere becomes part of the colorful visual reality. coming back to the states is like re-adjusting your color receptors to the rather monotonous color palette compared to india.

ralph

[jim arnold]

Ralph,

Car Wash is simply magnificent. I've been looking at this image for about five minutes. It's a visual feast.

-Jim

[bwdaly]

These are terrific, Ralph. Several of them--ones with Bengali script, those ubiquitous Indian padlocks--give me a feeling of nostalgia for Kolkata.

I regret that we weren't able to meet up at any point.

I have a first small set of photos from my few days in Delhi before we headed to Kolkata that I'll post under a separate subject.

--brad

[John Matturri]

Love the way these capture of differentness of India without making it exotic, the way they stay with the ordinary. At points where the viewer -- well, me -- might fall into some stereotyped conception of the country there is often something in the frame that reminds you not to fall into the trap. I suspect less that you consciously include such details so much as you don't consciously try to exclude them, which seems to be part of the working procedure of many travel photographers. (The consistency of your style plays a strong role in this. I wonder whether the shift from Germany to the US played a role in the development of that style, getting you to look at the unusualness of the ordinary; no idea how old you were when you moved. . .)

[ralph]

thanks, Jim, Brad, and John!

yes, it was again an enjoyable process to ignore the obvious stuff, and to discover the banal elements during my stay in kolkata.

when i look back in time, i must say that before my move to the states my understanding of photography was very rudimentary. i received major encouragement and stimulating advice on banality from you guys, and other photographers, foremost of course, from Eggleston's school of photography. remember i started off also with more conventional street, but switched when i felt tired of my b&w-only representation of the world.

ralph

[Paul Russell]

Good set Ralph. Garage was my favourite...