Eyes of Delhi – Photography Project

Eyes with no smile and no rancour, with no desire nor fear, neither hard nor gentle. Just the resolute humbleness of those who know hardness, and have accepted an unchanging fate.

I was just going through the streets of Delhi on a taxi, or a rickshaw, I can’t remember, when I saw one of those shared transport vehicles on my left side. We were stuck in one of the usual jams. A boy, orange shirt, was holding onto the bars of the vehicle with both hands, looking at something, at somewhere, looking at a distant place. I happened to be fidgeting with my camera, so I turned it on, pointed without looking as we were about to move, and took the shot.

Later on, looking at the picture, I realized it was telling me more than I expected, perhaps more than I wanted it to. The eyes of that boy weren’t only his. I had seen them already, all over the city, only I didn’t know they were telling the same story. I had seen them in the rickshaw pullers, in the street vendors, in the kids trying to sell you pani – water. I had seen them at the markets, near the traffic lights, on the sides of most streets where people squat, waiting. Eyes with no smile and no rancour, with no desire nor fear, neither hard nor gentle. Just the resolute humbleness of those who know hardness, and have accepted an unchanging fate.

Who are they again? The skinny, the poor, the lower caste? I fucking hate that word. But I am not from here, I am not from India, just a tourist passing by. What the hell do I know? How could I even begin to understand? I don’t understand. I only know those eyes have nothing to tell, and that’s their story to me.

I am really poorly equipped for a photography project, and I never thought I would even start one, but here I am. This page is dedicated to the Eyes of Delhi. I’ll update it as new photos come by.

PHOTOS

An old man on the street – Old Delhi

 

Three men at the spice market

 

A man resting on the side of the street in Old Delhi, and smiling at the photographer

 

A man in the narrow streets of Old Delhi

 

Man selling paan on the street – Old Delhi

 

Two men carrying heavy bags – Old Delhi

 

A man pulling a heavy load in the narrow streets of Old Delhi

 

A man preparing traditional Chai in Old Delhi

 

A man pedalling his way through the city

 

An old man at the market

 

The eyes of a man piercing through the bars of a bus

 

Two men resting on the street

 

Kids chased away by a guard because too close to the car in the background

 

A little girl peeking through the car window

 

Boy on the bus

 

A young man made himself at home in a corner of a main street

 

A man carries his bike in the middle of the street

 

A young boy pulls his bike loaded with cardboard under the heat

 

A man carries chickens in the middle of the day with over 35 C

 

A rickshaw puller in the narrow streets of Old Delhi

 

A rickshaw puller in the narrow streets of Old Delhi

 

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