Gentleman of India

I love India. I fell in love the first moment I walked out of the airport and into the hot Indian sun, the humidity hitting me like a wet ton of bricks. There were thousands of Indian eyes standing there staring right at me. They weren’t at the airport for me, they were waiting for loved ones to return home. But during my first moments in their land, they stared at me with incredible purpose, straight through my eyes and into the heart of my soul. This series is a collection of street portraits I took of men during my time in the Subcontinent. The photos became my way of interacting. My excuse to connect. As the project unfolded, they became my lifeblood. Asking for a portrait became an addiction. The intimacy I felt in those brief moments of capture made me feel alive. More than just seeing my subjects, I felt like my subjects were seeing me. They made me feel connected, open, and incredibly vulnerable, but also very welcome and even loved. “The simple and astonishing truth about India and Indian people is that when you go there, and deal with them, your heart always guides you more wisely than your head. There’s nowhere else in the world where that’s quite so true.” -Gregory David Roberts