Deep fried happiness

I had a great day walking around the old town of Kolkata this weekend. It is impossible to capture the energy and chaotic magnificence of the place - a modest attempt is below. So many friendly people with easy smiles, so many hard toilers with exhaustion showing on their crinkled faces, so much humanity.

Pink saris drying in an old landowners mansion

An old building holding legal chambers

Girl: foyer - in the bowels of Kolkata's legal district

An Artist's studio in Kolkata - an image of the goddess Durga is emerging from straw and clay

Watch repairer - Kolkata

Traffic - Kolkata

Kids throwing petals on the banks of the Hooghly River

The keenest laneway cricketer Kolkata has ever seen

A fellow human being

Tired out delivery men

Kolkata flower market

Rickshaw puller - Kolkata

Self portrait

Close to falling water, another architectural statement about man and his environment

District of Gentrification

In this city... people do this

Falling water in fall

A Frank Lloyd Wright wall and a swaying branch in afternoon sunlight.

Leaf. Rock.

Peak on Park

And then they were evicted....

FDR at 70mph

Man walks dogs - seen througha deli window accompanied by Napa wine and French cheese

It is thousands of singular acts like this that make a great city what it is. Banal in isolation, but magnificent as part of a slightly cramped whole.

Janitors at lunchtime

So I'm pretty chicken about taking pictures of people. I tried a new approach: walking along with the camera in my hands about waist high as if I was just carrying it, and then aiming haphazardly and snapping. It didn't work well in quiet places because people could hear the 'chachink' and looked at me like I was really wierd. I missed 99% of the time, but this one worked out ok. It was a glorious day.

Planes

This piece tracked all the commercial flights across the US and presented them in time lapse as asteroids. Looked amazing in video, but you can get the gist from this still.

I was admiring some Rothkos at a gallery and then walked 50 blocks and saw this decrepit building. Now I'm not saying Rothko's art is decrepid, but I imagine he could see beauty in such things.

New York. Sunday morning.