A Photographer who Captures India's Soaring Hights and Crashing Lows

When photographer Tom Pietrasik caught a flight from Delhi to Chennai he was long overdue for a vacation, but he thought he would bring his camera with him, just in case. A British journalist on the same flight laughed when he saw Pietrasik weighed down with a heavy bag of lenses and camera bodies, saying that there was no way that he would be able to relax if he brought his work with him. Two hours later when they landed an earthquake off the coast of Sumatra sent its massive tidal wave across Asia killing more than 225,000 people and laying waste to the coasts of seven countries. Pietrasik was glad to have his equipment with him.

Just a month after losing their parents to the Asian Tsunami, children play games at a government orphanage in Cuddalore. Tamil Nadu, India 2005.

Unlike many journalists who came in for a week and left when the news turned to other events, Tom Pietrasik has repeatedly returned to India's coasts to follow on the lives of a group of orphans growing up as refugees in Cuddalore. The picture above is one of my favorites of that series.

For the last eight years Tom Pietrasik has documented the soaring heights of India's economic boom as well as the nation's most vulnerable moments. His pictures have appeared in National Geographic Adventure, Newsweek and in an ongoing project with UNICEF. I've had the opportunity to know Pietrasik for the last several years and am eagerly awaiting a chance to collaborate with him on a project. It hasn't happened yet, but hopefully will soon.

Juhu Beach carnys amuse India's rising middle-class, 2002

He's allowed me to post a few of his pictures on this blog, but there is a lot more interesting work on his website http://www.tompietrasik.com.

Ruhelin Bai Bagdaria is among a handful of literate women in a village where only one in four can write their name. Maharashtra, India 2008.

Chennai through a Camera's Lens

For the last few weeks I've been trying to get the most out of my camera. After seeing someone's gallery on Flickr I've decided to rediscover black and white photography and spent a couple hours yesterday shooting portraits.

This is is a picture of my wife, Padma Govindan. I think she is the cat's meow.

Padma's mother, Indira Govindan is visiting from the USA for a few more weeks.

The gate to my apartment.

Mallika, my wife's cousin who is in town from Delhi. I took this photo while she was snarfing down potato chips in a local mall. She looks cute when her mouth isn't masticating huge lumps of processed root vegetable.

Revamped Photo Page

Five years ago my first SLR camera was stolen in the back alleys of Karol Bagh in New Delhi. Before then I used to take a lot of pictures, but I sort of lost heart until halfway through last year I finally shelled out the cash for a new digital SLR while trolling the grey markets in Malaysia. This meant that there was about a five year lull in my photo portfolio where I was shooting only on point and shoot cameras--so most of those pictures weren't really any good.

When I was putting together this website for the first time I realized that most of my shots were quite old, but I didn't yet have my new camera so it was rather pointless to put in recent pics. Well that has all changed. I recently downloaded JAlbum, a very easy to use web-gallery making program, and am beginning to post my recent photos online again.

Since I take a camera with me on almost every assignment I write I have a huge library of images from all across India. So if you are so inclined check out the photo-gallery page on my main website.