These Polaroids are the result of time spent exploring a theme. India has a million ways to travel, and I spent a couple of days in Kolkata after a photography tour ended. I set out with my Fujichrome 600 taking images that caught some of the variation. And a few people just doing their thing. Reading papers. Having a dip. Taking a nap.

Trams. Rickshaws. Cars. The Fujichrome 600 comes with a lens that is a little Lomographic, even tricksy. I’m not sure the images are always what I intended. Things are much further away, and judging stuff up close is pretty difficult. Focus? You don’t need to email me to tell me things are a bit blurry here and there.

One of the other reasons I took my faux Polaroid to India was to give people images. I was interested in how people reacted to watching their image arrive, and it made for some extremely happy moments. It also made for a few difficult moments in New Market, Kolkata, where I had to extract myself from a crowd of porters keen on extracting cash from me. My Bengali is non-existant and I finally met a guy who commented “Money is tight, money is tight” as he passed by. I followed, quickly, feeling vulnerable. I would have paid the guys who sat for me but the crowd was too big to do it sensibly. The Polaroid was not currency enough. This is a travel photography dilemma when you’re passing through, unable to spend the time creating a relationship. I gave one to the carer who looked after my good friend Mini’s mother-in-law. She had never seen a Polaroid. The smile on her face said it all. It was a heartwarming moment.

I love Kolkata. I stayed in a brilliant home stay, tucked up in a old Kolkata building, and wandered the local markets by day. Traders work the early morning and then the evening, and if one potters about at about 11am, markets are quiet places with people napping or drinking companionable cups of chai.

I found myself drawn to the quiet moments, where the cats and the rats were kings of the market and everyone else just slept. Or drank chai.

I’m not sure these are my best images, but they captured a moment. The Polaroids were fun. That’s what we have to remember when we take pictures - sometimes it just has to be fun. Nothing more. Scroll down to enjoy the pics below. Do email me if you would like to adventure with us in India on a photography holiday.

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