-by Sunhil Sippy

Made with Leica: Leica M10-R

Exotica in India has been all too often captured in photographs. But it is the uncomfortable wrestle between tradition and modernity that defines the period we are living in. Over a short period in November 2020, during the muted celebrations of Diwali, I tried to see this complex and over-captured environment with eyes that were fresh from having been caged in for close to 9 months. I discovered a place that thrived on simplicity and innocence yet was as equally harsh and unsettling. A sense of civic lawlessness prevailed while spiritual obeisance dominated. It was a heady and powerful cocktail. My own discomfort with coming too close to what can only be described as an ancestral culture, is precisely what drove me to try and capture that feeling in images.