Vogue, India Tearsheets

Vandana Bhatia and Maheep Kapoor are both celebrities in their own right. Maheep is a fantastic jewelry designer based in Mumbai and Vandana is a fashion designer based in Dubai. I got the chance to photograph both of them for Vogue India. Here are a few tear-sheets that were just sent to me. In addition Vandana and I were having too much fun and continued to shoot some shots at a personal level on the 4x5, attaching a few of those extras I enjoyed from our extended shoot as well.

On the sand dunes of Sam

In Jaisalmer, Rajasthan, these two camel rider's obliged me and let me make some images. Here is my favorite one from that session.

Siddharth Sanghvi

I was commissioned to photograph Siddharth Sanghvi, an Indian prodigy and extremely well known author of our times for Canteen Magazine. Sanghvi has been compared to Salman Rushdie and Vikram Seth in his writing styles, especially for using settings of magical realism, and themes such as karma, love and sexuality extensively in his very applauded book The Last Song of Dusk. Here are a few of my favorite images from the shoot. Above all, he was a delight to work with and a great person to brainstorm about life, love and image making.

On the way to Nidhivan

In my travels in India I visited teh holy city of Vrindavan, a place of mystery, religion and a superior form of organized chaos. This image was made on my way to Nidhivan.

Bada Bagh, Jaisalmer, Rajasthan

On the day I went to Bada Bagh, I met a very warm family who allowed me to make some images of them with the 4x5. The camera seemed to gain their interest, they asked me a lot of questions about the format; Some of them included if this camera made movies and if this meant they would appear on the television the next day.

The Cleaning Lady

This image was shot in Madrid, Spain about a month and a half ago. I will be posting more random moments from my recent travels as I slowly go through some 4x5 scans.

Cheers to Feature Shoot and others!

I learned about the incredible Berlin photographer, Amira Fritz through feature shoot and re-blogged about her work on my blog last November. This is how I came to discover, read and respect feature shoot for over a year.

I have been told by Stella Kramer and a few others that Feature shoot would be a good platform for the style of my imagery. To my complete joy, my new series Anastasia was recently featured on feature shoot. A big thanks to Alison Zavos for starting my 2011 off with a bang. Alison is a Photographer, Photo-editor and Publisher, please take a look at her website as well. And check out Alion's edit of my new work on feature shoot here.



Also Thanks to the following blogs for picking up a fun edit of my work. it's been a great way to learn about some new blogs from all over the world!

Design You Trust
16times9
Taringa
Xaxor - Manjari Sharma, Part 1
Xaxor - Manjari Sharma Part 2Illusion360
Inglr
Photo Donuts
Pichaus

Baba

100 Portraits 100 phtoographers; Fotoweek DC

Andy Adams, publisher of FlakPhoto recently teamed up with curator and Indie Photobook Library creator Larissa Leclair to create an exhibition at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington DC as part of FotoWeek DC 2010. They selected 100 portraits by 100 photographers who have been featured on Flak Photo, and the entire exhibition is available on his website. I was chosen to be in this line up and incredibly humbled by it. These images were projected on the Corcoran's Museum building during Fotoweek DC. Below is an image of what the projection looked like. I have nothing but the kindest of words to say about Andy Adams. Please continue to support flakphoto, a regularly visited blog by me, by following it on twitter and facebook. Many thanks to Larissa Leclair as well, I hope I get to meet you both in person some day!

The 100 portraits exhibit got a lot of shouts from many places but in particular I would like to thank Julie Grahame of acurator the online magazine. Julie has so kindly blogged about me in the recent past as is great supporter of my work. Thanks Julie for your shout to my image out within the 100 Portraits exhibition selection!

[caption id="attachment_3089" align="alignleft" width="450" caption="Projected image from the shower series during fotoweek DC "][/caption]

More Fashion week action!

Here is some more Fashion Week street style moments, photographer exclusively for my peeps at AOL stylelist! To see the full gallery, click here

Fashion week for AOL Street Style

I was assigned to photograph some Fashionweek Spring 2011 action by AOL. With trustee assistant Michelle Watt and the excellent company of writer Katie Hintz we scoured the streets of soho and uptown finding people who rocked their street style with pride. Here are a few images, to see more feel free to click on this gallery.

Portraits

On my shoot with Railroad earth I also shot some individual portraits. Here is a slide show below that lets you see some of those. Also featured below is the very handsome Band leader from and alternate versions of some band shots that I still hold dear to my heart. Enjoy!

[slideshow]

Colin's House

For years I have been hearing from everyone in my husbands family about summer vacations spent in Colin's house. My husband Bill Gaines and his siblings Kenny and Terri have had irreplaceable childhood memories that all took place on Mr. Colin's Property. Cabins with a musty scent, eroding sandpits, seaweed, secrets interlaced, told, forgotten. This summer three generations of the gaines's... grand papa and mama Gaines, their children, spouses and the grandchildren all went down to visit their landmark summer spot.

I not only got to visit Colin's home which is on a beautiful lake in Massachusetts but also got to spend a lot of time there exploring the space. As the Gaines family lead me on guided tours telling me stories of what happened and where all over that topography, I felt as if I was taking a walk into history; Into rooms and landscapes that were shaped for me just as much with that New England earth and air, as they were with reverie and fantasy. Presenting to you spotty glimpses of the fabled home of Colin Taylor.

Test shots from Indian Ad shoot

I am referring to a recent advertising shoot I had in India. This fine gentleman delivered chai to my photography set. Handsome young strapping delhi boy who had a great personality and character. Ram was standing in for the models that were about to come. Since the advertising shoot cannot be released yet I decided to share a teaser from the test shoot. This one is for Ram from Laxya Models, my production house from delhi. Thanks Ram.

Siblings

To look at a new series of Images click here and then on new work

The Terrace

The terrace is my mom's favorite place in our flat. I can certainly see why, but not only because I know she loves the space and all her little plants but also because I see it in my own special way; Very differently than her. It has a very peculiar geometry. If you follow this blog then you may have seen this post I made little earlier called Urban Organics which is also similarly reflective of my intrigue in intersecting lines, planes and randomly organized practical tools. The satellite dish antenna and clothes pins interspersed in this space is extremely intriguing to me. An organized yet chaotic scene, just like the entire country is. I love it more than I ever have. If that's even possible.



Pictured below is my mom taking a whiff of her favorite flower the Mogra. It is incredibly fragrant & often strewn into a mini garland and draped around the hair. Pictured in the last image is the potted plant of the mogra that my mom returned the flower to. It's my favorite planted pot on that terrace, covered in heavenly spongy green moss.

A Sharma family morning

My mother, Kiran Sharma and my father Sunil Sharma pictured below have both taken a fairly religious curve on life in the past decade. I set up a couple lights in my flat in Mumbai and decided to capture them in their morning ritual modes. My dad is doing his routine morning prayer in our temple room and my mom is walking through her favorite part of our flat, the terrace.

Mom is holding a brass crucible of water in her hands, she is about to make an offering of that water and say a small chant worshiping the sun god and giving thanks for the gift of sunlight. The freshly awakened younger brother of mine, pictured below my parents is a strapping Mumbai-ker who loves to scour the Bollywood tabloids when getting his early morning news fix. Just a little peek into my world here in Mumbai. Please click on the images to get a better look.

The Shower Series, Self Portrait

The Shower series is on a mini sabatical until I return from India in six weeks. While I still will be posting from India I wanted to leave you with this one last image of the series, a self portrait. This project began with me and a fascination of this light, color, texture in my own space, it's what egged this series on. I thought it would be appropriate to place a pause in the series with a final image of myself. So, to be continued...

Aline Smithson

Two portraits I was quite inspired by in my blog browsings are by photographer Aline Smithson. Please enjoy some of her other work on her web link. One of her quotes reads "I take photographs to allow myself and the viewer to linger a little longer within an image." These portraits certainly got me to do that without a doubt. Kudos!

Trisha, Happy Belated Birthday

To one of my favorite firecrackers of all time. Trisha Chakraborty stole my heart from the day I laid sight on her, she continues to be Manji Masi's favorite. This post is dedicated to Trisha turning all of three years old! May your life be filled with health, wealth, prosperity and contentment. Look out for the mail Trisha! A treat is on it's way!