Being Indian (portraits)

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Delhi, 2011

B E I N G I N D I A N

(portraits of India)

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It's been more than twenty years since i first went to India. For months on end, year after year, I travelled around this vast country from North to South and East to West, witnessing India's immense diversity.
It's a trite to say that landing in India is like diving into an ocean of humanity. At first, it looks dreadfully chaotic and it takes time to find one's bearings. Then, quite surprisingly, you soon want to be part of it and go with the flow.
Forget about the notions of individuality and privacy. Forget your own self! Just surrender! This is the land of plenty, where the art of living together is taught for better and for worse. The land where all ages of man are represented mingling on the same street corner.
Travelling on trains and buses for endless hours across the Deccan, the Ganges plain or the Rajasthanii desert. Wandering the streets of vibrant cities. Cycling through sleepy and timeless villages. Attending the world's biggest religious gatherings that still bring millions of Indians together... that's how I met and photographed the people of India.
I soon realized that being a foreigner enabled me to access and observe the contrasting worlds and aspects of Indian society. This priviledged status of visitor and guest often gave me the opportunity to meet and spend time with people from different castes, ethnic, social and religious communities. All of them have taught me something about India and what being Indian really means, because, in spite of the tremendous gap that seperates them, all seem to have one thing in common: each and everyone embraces Indianness and shares the common feeling of belonging to a country that is often referred to as "Mother India".