Cultural Do's and Don'ts of everyday scenes ?

haal Fakiran da

What advice would you give to outsiders when they are photographing everyday scenes in a modern day urban or rural india ?

Taboos, miscues, and other pointers. Do you have stories that illustrate the joys and difficulties ? I plan to do some photography when I am there. I enjoy photographing facial expressions of humans in normal day life.

mridula

Some people who are quite used to it would ask for a small amount of money for being photographed.

Kids enjoy being photographed but once or twice I have been told no.

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Mridula

Travel Tales from India

rajered

Asking for permission would be better.

machadinha

One hears of people asking you to pay them (sometimes aggressively so, even after initially agreeing to have their picture taken); probably more so along the main tourist trail, I don't think it happened much, if ever, on my last trip. Kids used to tourists might try for it (or for a pen, or whatever); I'd either not photograph them, or distract them, or certainly not oblige anyway. I don't think it's teaching them any good to do so. If I want to help them, I'll do it of my own accord, and possibly unseen to them.

This trip was the first time ever and anywhere that I really started photographing people; I used to be shy of it, but now it just sort of came my way. As others who do it have mentioned here (one of IM's "house photographers," and a great portrait taker, Jorge Reverter, has left some good observations on it, for instance), the situation will often sort of "grow"; so you may be sitting around with some people, then at some point get out the camera and ask if they want to be photographed (or vice versa, of course). Or maybe you'll be making some pics of the surroundings, then they'll warm up to you and indicate they'd like to have their photograph taken. (This can in fact be a good trick, so just start clicking away at the surroundings, then see what happens.) Not rarely people would just ask for it. Having a shot taken with you is also often a great hit; just to see it on your digital screen will delight many people.

I tried to make it a point to always take down their address; carry a notebook on you, and have them write it down in their own script if they can't write English, if you photocopy that and add "India" (add state/city for good measure), it should be OK & hopefully arrive. Make a note to remind yourself of who they were, of course! E.g., "Kids playing soccer, Colaba Market." Etc., pretty self-explanatory, isn't it.

(One result is that once I finally get my frikking pics processed, I'll have a ton to send to India. This would also stop me from getting the camera out when I just didn't feel like another conversation etc. My idea btw is to add a CD of the highlights of the entire trip, people will always have access to a computer somewhere to view it if they want. I'll have to see how to make it not too demanding in terms of state-of-the art equipment; but I reckon I can tone it all down a notch.)

I would do this (ask for address) with the kids such as mentioned above too; it would often distract them from any fantasies of pens candy undetermined amounts of Rupees etc.

It's not so difficult to get into once you get going; again, it's probably easier to do in not the tourist hotspots. I would never do it without asking permission no; or if people clearly shy away from it, or something. Be extra tactful (certainly if you're a man at least) with photographing women just like that, don't go around sticking a lens in their face without warning. (Tribals, obviously destitute people, etc., ditto.) But if you just ask, they may be quite willing to have their photo taken really. Respect anyone who doesn't, obviously.

(I found women generally remarkably accessible this time really; not sure if that reflects on a certain societal development; or if I'm just getting older and finding it easier to reach out to people (and have now been to India a few times, which will certainly help). Probably both, right. Always keep an eye, too, on how happy any male company is with your chatter, of course. Again though, I found it would usually be fine. With any males around, it's probably wisest to address them and generally acknowledge their presence and superiority first. One should probably have some feel for what distance to keep; I wouldn't go around and chat up some strange lady for an hour or so. But simple courtesies can usually easily be exchanged yes; and then there'd be plenty of women who would initiate a friendly conversation themselves. Again, it just takes some tact, and some feeling for a situation I guess. If you notice any sort of blockades, just leave it be. With both sexes, of course.)

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machadinha

nb A note on "photographing facial expressions of humans in normal day life," this won't be so easy I'm afraid.

Indians tend to be highly photogenic; you'll end up with a lot of pics that look like small paintings. Exactly of the still life variety though; people tend to "freeze up" for you. Again, in the most elegant of ways; but the spontaneity is often lost. Ditto for when you have to make several tries; often that first pic that didn't work could have been great, after that they become all stern and posing for you, and the moment is gone.

Alas; I don't see any way around it. Except for "stealing" their images when they don't notice; or some people use ultra-zoom for it I guess. Neither feels right to me, so I don't normally do that. Well, perhaps a market shot from my hotel window or something, but that's about it. I suppose once you develop to a confidence greater than what I had now, you could try and do a whole portrait series of a person, it's possible they'll lighten up again once they get what you're doing, and get into that process. That, I think, I'll try and do a next time I reckon it's also not impossible they'd get entirely shy with it; if so, just drop it, right.

thirdreel

I noticed this last time too. I wonder if the way to do it is to first take the picture in the I-Am-Getting-My-Picture-Taken pose, then hang out for a while, relax, chat, tell them it's okay if they get back to whatever they were doing, then snap.

machadinha

Could certainly be an approach yes; it's all a matter of time, gaining confidence, and such, I guess.

Language I find often a barrier to progress beyond initial niceties.

But, yes, like I said, I'm basically quite shy with it. I should hope to develop it further in future. It is in fact a very nice way to get in touch with people, too; even if you don't speak a common language or anything, at least you have the pics to share! And (most; many) people will really appreciate a nice capture of them.

Haylo

I've never given anyone money or anything else to take their photo, but I haven't really tried taking a lot of photos of people at tourist places.

Kids have always been the easiest, they just love having their photo taken, and after I've taken their photo they've several times persuaded their shy mothers to have theirs taken too. Not that I had the language skills to ask them to do that, it was a bonus.

Everyone seems to love seeing their own images on the camera - I strongly recommend you take spare camera batteries, and keep them well charged because in my experience the price for taking a photo isn't money or pens or sweets, it's showing them and all their friends the image on the back of the camera.

Some of my favourite people-photos were taken after I got "talking" to an older lady in a slum (it's surprising what you can say without any language skills ) and as I was leaving I "asked" to take her photo - well, it took me another hour to get out of there, she even sent people off to fetch her grandchildren and all her relatives, we had such a fun time taking photos and looking at them!

I think that by far the best way to get photos of people is to be around them a bit first saying hello and smiling and just being there is enough (in India people seem to accept you just being there and being friendly even if the language skills for complicated interactions aren't there), rather than walking up to complete strangers and poking a camera in their face and offering them money. Sounds a bit obvious, but I've seen people do that, with not brilliant results.

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