Photographic Journal #1

This is the first installment of my photographic journal for ‘Kalagora’. The show documents and recreates the experiences of the global wanderer in three specific global cities: New York, London, Mumbai. Let’s start with New York, the most visually iconic of world cities. I was back there recently after 7 years. A long time. I took a bus from DC, and got into midtown around 4 in the afternoon. As I approached the familiarly strange skyscape of Manhattan, with mos def blasting through my headphones, I had the feeling of coming back to claim a home that was never mine. I got off the bus, closed my eyes, breathed a sigh of relief. Manhattan had changed. Cleaner, less noisy, with a lotta posh people walking their dogs.

It wasn’t until I got downtown to the old familiar haunts near the east village and lower east side that I felt the sizzle n’ thrill of being in New York. Over the next few days, my friend and I, walked the streets looking for things to shoot. Chinatown was immense, vast, kaleidoscopic. On the other side of town, Harlem was raw as ever. These photographs represent my attemtps to capture the vitality of these distinct cultural neighbourhoods. Both seem like cultural entities that have resisted the yuppie encroachment. Over the next week, I’ll be posting more pictures and clips from the film work we did there…