Street Photography in India

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Sunday, 19 November 2017 - Started the photography tour in Mumbai with a small group of photographers, visiting the bustling Dadar flower market with rose and marigold stacks, observed and photographed the Dabbawala lunch delivery system at the central train station, admired the ornate Victorian architecture of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus and the Municipal Building, explored Crawford Market with its fresh fruits and vibrant street life, and visited the sprawling Dhobi Ghat laundry complex to see thousands of workers washing, drying, and ironing clothes in the world's largest open-air laundry.

india2017 — Now the real photography tour begins. The first stop was a trip to Mumbai, where the tour began. Here I met the four other photographers on the trip - so it was a small group. From this point on the trip was focused on people and street photography - not my speciality.

The hotel was in the airport complex and from the rooftop bar the tower is very clear.

india2017 — The first stop in Mumbai was the wholesale flower market at Dadar. Fresh flowers from the farms are sorted and sold.

Rose petals - a lot of rose petals.

india2017 — Stacks of marigolds

india2017 — Negotiating and buying marigolds

india2017 — A small shrine in the flower market. You can see the narrow walkways between the flower stalls.

india2017 — Young salesman

india2017 — Fluffing the flowers to make the marigolds look fresh.

india2017 — Stacks of roses ready for distribution.

india2017 — Panning the men pulling the empty cartons back to the trucks. It was amazing how fast the cartons were emptied in the market.

india2017 — Men eating breakfast surrounded by flower cartons.

india2017 — Garlands strung - fresh and ready for distribution. There was a small team of men taking fresh flowers and stringing them in the marketplace.

india2017 — Flower cartons - empty - loaded on the truck to take back to the flower farms.

india2017 — From the flower market we headed over to central train station where the Dabbawala process was going on.

In 1890 Bombay, Mahadeo Havaji Bachche started a lunch delivery service with about a hundred men. Lunch comes in from the suburbs to the city by train, then picked up at the train station and delivered to the office.

india2017 — Lunch tins ready to be distributed

Color coding system identifies the destination and recipient.

india2017 — Load of lunches headed to their owners in the city.

Each dabbawala is required to contribute a minimum capital in kind, in the form of two bicycles, a wooden crate for the tiffins, white cotton pajamas, and the white Gandhi cap (topi). Each month there is a division of the earnings of each unit. Fines are imposed for alcohol, tobacco, out-of-uniform, and absenteeism.

india2017 — A bike loaded with lunches

Between 175,000 and 200,000 lunch boxes are moved each day by 4,500 to 5,000 dabbawalas.

india2017 — A dabbawala getting ready to distribute a bike load of lunches

Most dabbawala are related to each other, belong to the Varkari sect of Maharashtra, and come from the same small village near Pune. Tiffin distribution is suspended for five days each March as the dabbawala go home for the annual village festival.

india2017 — Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus formerly known as Victoria Terminus is a huge building. Very ornate - Victorian Italianate Gothic Revival architecture.

india2017 — Wonderful gargoyle on Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus

india2017 — Across the street is another ornate building from the Victorian period - the Municipal Building which houses the city government was built in 1865.

india2017 — Detail of a griffin on the Municipal Building

india2017 — After a quick lunch we visited the Crawford Market where there is a fresh fruit market

india2017 — These guys carried fruit and refuse from the market.

india2017 — Some very colorful and artsy graffiti

india2017 — Very odd red fruit - I think it is dragon fruit

india2017 — Fresh pomegranate

india2017 — Young fruit vendor.

india2017 — Next stop was the Mumbai laundry, or Dhobi Ghat, which is quite an operation. Spread over several city blocks it is a sprawling complex.

india2017 — Clothes hanging to dry in the world's largest open laundry where clothes are hand washed.

india2017 — Sheets hung to dry

Many of the Mumbai hotels and hospitals send their laundry to the Dhobi Ghat.

india2017 — A woman checking the clothes

There are over 7,000 people washing each day

india2017 — No clothespins used - clothes are simply tucked into the ropes

india2017 — Everyplace is used to dry clothes - including the roof

india2017 — Hot water for washing

india2017 — Heating water for the laundry

india2017 — The clothes seem to be color segregated and here there were a number of red articles.

india2017 — Several stations for ironing within the complex

india2017 — Poles holding up lines for drying clothes as life in the complex goes on

india2017 — Heat from the laundry creates a mist even in the hot laundry

india2017 — The jean station - how do they get the right jeans back to the right person?

india2017 — Working in the laundry

india2017 — A food vendor outside the laundry

india2017 — A young girl seeking a treat

india2017 — The laundry sits among the high-rise apartments in downtown Mumbai

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