Where colour gets in

A documentary photography series. Kolkata, India, 2026

This is a city that does not sit still. Kolkata moves and breathes and makes a wonderful mess of itself, and somehow, right in the middle of all that commotion, there are these little pockets of calm.

A woman walking past a flower shop with colorful bouquets outside, in an urban setting.
Apartment building with open windows, some with bars, and colorful laundry hanging on windows and lines outside.
Street scene at night with a rickshaw, a person writhing on the ground, a woman walking, lit by streetlights and smoke in the background.
Clothes drying on a line in front of a weathered building with columns and an arch, with Indian flags strung above.
A group of school children dressed in white uniforms with red scarves and maroon hats, some holding musical instruments like drums and a trumpet, are gathered in an alleyway for a street parade or celebration, with a man in a white shirt standing in
A black bicycle with a tan leather seat leaning against a yellow wall with red trim and a decorative iron gate in the center.
A woman walking outdoors balancing a large basin on her head, wearing a blue patterned dress and headscarf, with a pink and cream cloth hanging nearby, and a dog inside a cage in the background
A woman in a colorful saree sitting on concrete stairs under a bamboo scaffold structure in a dimly lit area with brick walls, a black rubber tire hanging, and laundry hanging overhead.

There is a beautiful tension in this city between the old and the new, the sacred and the ordinary. Grand buildings and homes become galleries of everyday art.

A temporary religious shrine decorated with pink and purple fabric, featuring a statue of a deity adorned with flowers, in an open-air courtyard surrounded by yellow and green walls. There are chairs and bicycles nearby, and a child is sitting on one
Nighttime scene of a modern building entrance with colorful neon lights on the ceiling, a security guard standing to the left, and a dark, reflective corridor leading into a well-lit interior space.
View through a decorative window with a silhouette of an amusement park ride or roller coaster in the background.

These photographs are my way of saying: look at this. Look how beautiful it all is, even the bits that are falling apart. Especially those bits. There are cracks — and that is where the colour gets in.

A man leaning against a yellow taxi parked on the street, with two women standing nearby and engaged in conversation, behind a small street vendor stall, with various colorful posters and signs on the wall behind them, including an advertisement for
Close-up of a stone pillar inside a temple, with a pink flower and thin wire tied around it. Background shows historical carvings and dark blue drapes or tarps.
A busy street with various vehicles, including cars, auto rickshaws, and motorcycles, seen from above. A large, colorful bus is in the center, and there's a stop sign painted on the road.
A red bicycle parked outside a weathered concrete house with a barred window and a partly covered door with a red and white curtain. There are three pairs of shoes on the ground, and a small container next to the bicycle.
Flowers and white flowers with yellow and orange blooms are arranged on a stone surface, with incense sticks placed in the ground, suggesting a ceremonial or ritual setup.
Clothes hanging on lines for drying on a rooftop with a black plastic chair in the foreground and water tanks on the roof in the background.
Clothes hanging on a clothesline above a stone boundary wall, with a black bird perched on the wall.
Two vintage taxis, one yellow and one white, parked under a shelter with a red building and people in the background.

This city does not reveal itself all at once. I will be coming again. And again.

People gathered on steps leading to a Hindu temple, some in traditional attire, with a priest conducting a ritual, and others sitting or standing around.
People swimming and washing clothes along a riverbank beneath a large steel bridge, with old buildings lining the shore and cargo ships in the water.