Gokarna 2017, from the series Gokarna 2008 onwards

Gokarna, exploring a new film than never was. Captivated by the people, I began shooting in Gokarna in 2008 & in 2009 I undertook my first major project in the Village. Building a studio with locally sourced materials on the beach to capture the essence of the village through the eyes the people, both locals & western travellers who frequent Gokarna. In 2017 I returned for my sixth trip, this time armed with 4 boxes of the incredible New55 film. New55 gave an entirely new experience for my shooting in Gokarna, until now, I had to wait until the following trip to give the locals the images. But now, I could process & fix in the evenings and pop round for a chat and exchange, invaluable in an age where digital travel photography has made it ever harder to build relationship for portraits. I borrowed a stool from a friend, it was one of the only wooden stools I could find in the village, most people have gotten rid of the beautiful old wooden ones in favour of plastic. My heart sank when I heard New55 stoped production in December 2017.