Still Tour 2005 - Mumbai

Tour discontinued

2006-08-02T01:01:00.000-07:00

Sad to announce Tour 2005 has now been discontinued despite an abundance of material that could be still shown.

When more time, I will consolidate all the best shots into a exhibition at some point outside blogger and perhaps make an online/offline photodiary out of them. Hopefully my next trip to India in the next couple of months will also provide more ammo for this purpose.

If remotely interested, follow the progress of this on http://matti.pohjonen.org

Day comes to an end - Juhu Beach

2006-01-02T03:03:00.000-08:00

6 months of pictures from Bombay now behind me and there seems to be a couple of hundred more to choose from.

During these months, I've realized that if one thing characterizes Bombay ( at least from the always-perversly voyeristic photographers perspective) is that it is one of the most photogenic cities I've been in. Or to be more precise, it is not unique in being photogenic as every place has such potential in one way or another; rather, Bombay has a distinct quality to it that has to do with its people and the relationship people have to the production of space and color around them. I've been to many cities where all I want to take pictures of is of buildings, architecture, landscape: where the people themselves are almost distractions or have a peculiarly supplementary relationship to the giant architectural machinery of the city. Bombay, on the contrary, is another kind of machine where the buildings transmutate into people transmutate into action into space - like millions of spiders weaving their webs each forming a complex and unpredictable yet ordered meshwork of relationships. The web is the people is the space is the buildings and vice versa.

So going back to the images I've chosen, it has been interesting to note that most of them do actually deal with people and everyday life. Don't know if I've fallen a victim of the cliches of stereotypical representation here, but I've found it hard to repeat the city in photograpy without always foregrounding the web of people, the daily spinning, buzz, momevent. Hopefully, a trip back to the city sometime soon will allow me to develop a more thought-out articulated photo-series of the city ... at least more than what I have tried here with my somewhat random Still Tour 2005 that started off with three people and ended up to me alone keeping up the Tour after the computer crash of my original co-conspirator. And if nothing else has come out of this, at least it has allowed me to clarify vision: for photography is never about the image; it is about learning to see differently, learning to repeat what we see every day just a little differently for us to go beyond the habit or everyday reality...

Meanwhile, more stuff still to exlplore in my archives. Lets which part of the city I shall return next...

2006-01-02T03:02:00.000-08:00

...and the day comes to an end

2006-01-02T03:01:00.000-08:00

sunny, 25 years

2006-01-02T03:00:00.001-08:00

one of these days

2006-01-02T03:00:00.000-08:00

the last rays

2006-01-02T02:59:00.000-08:00

the magnificient flying balloon creature

2006-01-02T02:57:00.002-08:00

rainbow for sale # 2

2006-01-02T02:57:00.001-08:00

the rainbow for sale

2006-01-02T02:57:00.000-08:00

pani puri

2006-01-02T02:55:00.000-08:00

rickshtandard

And some more of Juhu Beach ...

2005-12-26T07:24:00.000-08:00

More of Juhu Beach ...

2005-12-26T07:22:00.004-08:00

2005-12-26T07:22:00.003-08:00

juhu # 9

2005-12-26T07:22:00.002-08:00

juhu # 6

2005-12-26T07:22:00.001-08:00

juhu # 8

2005-12-26T07:22:00.000-08:00

juhu # 10

2005-12-26T07:21:00.000-08:00

juhu # 5

2005-12-26T07:20:00.001-08:00

juhu # 4

2005-12-26T07:20:00.000-08:00

juhu # 3

2005-12-26T07:19:00.001-08:00

juhu # 2

2005-12-26T07:19:00.000-08:00

juhu # 1

Juhu Beach - Bourgeois paradise?

2005-12-19T01:09:00.000-08:00

Next some shots from Juhu Beach, about an hour North of Bombay, close to the heart of Bollywood filmilandia and the new suburbs of the North. This is what they say about Juhu in one of the guides: "like Chowpatty, its downtown counterpart, uptown Juhu Beach is also a bourgeois paradise, filled to the gills with screaming children, courting couples and rowdy adolescents." Heh! I would normally stay as far as possible from anything called a "bourgeois paradise" but what sacrifices I guess one must make for the sake of art and the image.

2005-12-19T01:08:00.000-08:00

cruising, juhu beach

2005-12-19T01:06:00.002-08:00

pani puri, juhu beach

2005-12-19T01:06:00.001-08:00

pav bhaji 2, juhu beach

2005-12-19T01:06:00.000-08:00

sunset blv, juhu beach

2005-12-19T01:05:00.001-08:00

pav bhaji, juhu beach

2005-12-19T01:05:00.000-08:00

coconuts, juhu beach

2005-12-19T01:04:00.001-08:00

star wars, juhu beach

2005-12-19T01:04:00.000-08:00

ice delivery, juhu beach

Last batch - Colaba Glitter

2005-11-06T07:29:00.000-08:00

Time to say good-bye to Colaba for now. Next .walk ahead is ... Juhu beach.

2005-11-06T07:28:00.000-08:00

checking the scene

2005-11-06T07:27:00.001-08:00

proto-orientalist beggar series

2005-11-06T07:27:00.000-08:00

nutowork # 5

2005-11-06T07:26:00.002-08:00

taj glitter # 4 (or 5?

2005-11-06T07:26:00.001-08:00

supersave Gateway

2005-11-06T07:26:00.000-08:00

nutwork # 4

2005-11-06T07:25:00.001-08:00

books

2005-11-06T07:25:00.000-08:00

on the trip to goa

2005-11-06T07:24:00.000-08:00

McTroops

2005-11-06T07:23:00.000-08:00

beads and dangles

Colaba Glitter Part III

2005-10-28T15:39:00.000-07:00

One more batch of images from Colaba. Perhaps one more to come. Lets see how I feel next time ...

2005-10-28T15:38:00.000-07:00

... at the gateway

2005-10-28T15:37:00.001-07:00

sad carnival # 2

2005-10-28T15:37:00.000-07:00

proto-orientalist beggar series part infinity

2005-10-28T15:36:00.001-07:00

taj glitter #�3

2005-10-28T15:36:00.000-07:00

bunty aur babli

2005-10-28T15:35:00.001-07:00

reflections

2005-10-28T15:35:00.000-07:00

causeoutofway

2005-10-28T15:34:00.000-07:00

gohil tailors

2005-10-28T15:33:00.000-07:00

fancy goods

Colaba Glitter part II

2005-10-19T14:45:00.000-07:00

Some more pictures from Colaba. People in the evening congregate around the Gateway to India to spend money or to earn money that others spend: families, nutvendors, watchwallahs, beggars, tourists, businessmen ...

2005-10-19T14:43:00.000-07:00

watch the watches

2005-10-19T14:42:00.000-07:00

sad carnival (again)

2005-10-19T14:41:00.002-07:00

nutwork # 3

2005-10-19T14:41:00.001-07:00

taj glitter # 2

2005-10-19T14:41:00.000-07:00

nutwork # 2

2005-10-19T14:40:00.000-07:00

little piggy

Colaba Glitter

2005-10-14T07:10:00.000-07:00

Sorry, been awhile since my last posting. Moved house, country and all other such inconveniences...

Anyway, the series continues with no particular logic. Next is Colaba, a few kilometers down South from the very different working class areas of Girgaon. Colaba is the place most people who do not live in the city (especially foreigners) associate with Bombay. If the city would have something called a tourist district, this would be it. This is where the dreadlocked tourists shop for yoga clothes on their way to Goa; this is also where the glitterati of South Bombay come to show themselves in some of the posh restaurants and nightclubs that surround the Taj Hotel; and this is the place where you can watch people grabbing onto their Lonely Planets seeing how far they will dare to venture out from the main street. But unlike the rest of Bombay where people usually let you be, this is also the place where agressive vendors and scouts lured in by the strange attractor of tourism come to try to use their diverse and often-ingenious tactics to make you spend money. Which annoys the fuck out of you the third time onwards...

Despite all, a lot of good times was spent here. Busaba, Gokuls, the view at Starlit Cafe; anyways, look for youself before I start sounding like a tourist brochure.

2005-10-14T07:07:00.000-07:00

taj glitter

2005-10-14T07:06:00.000-07:00

taking a break

2005-10-14T07:05:00.001-07:00

salvation

2005-10-14T07:05:00.000-07:00

inspire!

2005-10-14T07:04:00.000-07:00

nutwork

Girgaon part II

2005-09-09T07:36:00.000-07:00

Some more pictures of my .walks.

2005-09-09T07:34:00.000-07:00

ladies only

2005-09-09T07:33:00.000-07:00

at work, to work, from work

2005-09-09T07:32:00.000-07:00

taking a break

2005-09-09T07:31:00.000-07:00

gentile balcony II

2005-09-09T07:29:00.000-07:00

motocycle

2005-09-09T07:28:00.000-07:00

doorway 3 into ...

Girgaon

2005-08-31T15:22:00.000-07:00

Now that it seems somebody might actually visit these pages, I thought I'd organize some of the pictures instead of putting them up somewhat sporadically and randomnly. I will also try to narrate some kind of a theme behind the year-long presentation of Still Tour 2005 that might help order some of the complex visual topography that is called Bombay.

So the following series here is a start. They compose of pictures I've taken on my many walks through Girgaon, the old working class areas of South Central Bombay. I used to love these crowded labyrynthine byways - from Kotachiwadi to Chor Bazar, from Grant's Road to Crawford Market. This was my place in Bombay to wander around aimlessly and get lost on purpose: to look at people going around with their busy lives, to get overwhelmed and sometimes suffocated by the buzz, the noise, the traffic, the chaos, the crowds ...

If there is one area in Bombay that has (or had) for me a special psychogeographical resonance it was this area. So here are some of the many photos captured during my walks. More to come.

2005-08-31T15:20:00.001-07:00

marketing - Girgaon, Bombay

2005-08-31T15:20:00.000-07:00

garden - Girgaon, Bombay

2005-08-31T15:19:00.000-07:00

at work - Girgaon, Bombay

2005-08-31T15:18:00.000-07:00

man and cart - Girgaon, Bombay

2005-08-31T15:17:00.000-07:00

parking - Girgaon, Bombay

2005-08-31T15:16:00.000-07:00

on her way - Girgaon, Bombay

2005-08-31T15:15:00.000-07:00

workers - Girgaon, Bombay

2005-08-31T15:14:00.000-07:00

cow stop - Bombay, Girgaon

2005-08-31T15:13:00.000-07:00

doorway two into ... Girgaon, Bombay

2005-08-31T15:12:00.000-07:00

gentile balcony 1 - Girgaon, Bombay

2005-08-31T15:10:00.000-07:00

doorway into ... - Girgaon, Bombay

2005-08-31T15:09:00.000-07:00

man and machine - Girgaon, Bombay

2005-08-24T08:56:00.000-07:00

gender politics - Nana Chowk, Bombay

2005-08-24T08:55:00.001-07:00

naps time - Chowpatty, Bombay

2005-08-24T08:55:00.000-07:00

frenchie part 2 - Crossroads Shopping Mall, Bombay

2005-08-24T08:54:00.000-07:00

mellow evening sun - Opera House, Bombay

2005-08-24T08:53:00.000-07:00

crawford market - Crawford Market, Bombay

2005-08-24T08:52:00.000-07:00

on the bus - Nana Chowk, Bombay

2005-08-14T10:07:00.000-07:00

(the proto-orientalist?) beggar series # 4 - Juhu Beach, Bombay

2005-08-14T09:54:00.000-07:00

bubbles # 2 - Juhu Beach, Bombay

2005-08-14T09:48:00.000-07:00

bubbles - Juhu Beach, Bombay

2005-08-14T09:47:00.000-07:00

untitled - Juhu Beach, Bombay

2005-08-12T07:22:00.000-07:00

Mumbai Rains #6 (Chapel Road, Bandra)

2005-08-11T16:31:00.000-07:00

Yo! - Mumbai Rains #5

2005-08-05T08:04:00.000-07:00

Mumbai Rains #4

2005-08-03T22:52:00.000-07:00

Mumbai Rains #3

2005-08-03T03:55:00.000-07:00

Mumbai Rain #2 (Bandra)