Although travel has no doubt been limited for many over the last couple of years, happily it now seems to be back and getting into full flow. Capturing the world through the work of photojournalists is vital to us all, so we can see and learn about countries we have perhaps never been lucky enough to visit. Photojournalist David Hicks is one such photographer whose work really does capture the world. The joy of this and being able to share these images and the beauty of these destinations has been a huge honour to him and something he enjoyed collating in this video.
This video collection of his travels in India moves across many different images of people, places, landscapes and events that I found interesting. Travel photography is about interpreting ordinary life. Hicks likes wandering around towns and streets marvelling about how we, human beings, live. He like looking at things that others would consider dreary, he enjoys collecting these moments, he likes the joy of it, he likes curating them into stories about how we do things. He likes comparisons between cultures too. His work is spontaneous, don’t ask him what shutter speed or exposure he shot at, he has no idea but it is what the photo says, what he wants it to, that is what is important. However always a good idea to carry a spare camera, just in case you lose or drop yours, which he has done and is hugely irritating!
A good photographer connects the viewer to the image and in a video collection like this he has collated these images from India to create a sense of intrigue and curiosity for the viewer, where he hopes he is allowing viewers to discover what they want in these images, to imagine this country in their own unique way just with some help from his shots.
There are so many subject matters you want to photograph and catalogue in this fascinating country and he has included a few in his photo library. So who could leave out cows when photographing India ?
India has about 30% of the world’s cattle, around 200 million cows, with most of them roaming about freely around the streets . The Hindu religion states that they’re sacred and as such it’s a crime to harm or eat them. this is the only country in the world that has a Bill of Rights for cows! Not surprisingly therefore it is the world’s largest milk producer. However sadly there is also the issue of too many cows in India and the problems this too can cause.
The Festival of Colours, Holi, is celebrated in the month of February-March and how beautiful is this? A two day Hindu festival when perfumed powder is thrown at everyone and the joy of colour is celebrated – a celebration of good over evil, light over darkness, something that we are all praying for these days.
From the beauty of the tea estates to the slightly more challenging aspects of major cities like Delhi, this is a country of rich culture, colour and tradition which is a feast for the eyes and somewhere all photographers should try and visit to be enriched as Hicks was on this trip.
