Indelible India — John Buckley

Indelible India

On an immersive return to India, after an absence of nearly half a century, we found it transformed, yet eternally the same.

The cacophony of horns now has an expanded brass section comprised of millions more motorbikes. Riding to the Agra Fort, navigating the streets of Delhi, heading through long desert stretches punctuated by small towns and cities with their street corner produce stands and crowds waiting for tuk-tuks, one finds the roads continue to be cow-throttled obstacle courses replete with death-defying, hair-raising moments as the bus swerves back into its lane.

The streets are filled, it seems, with twice the vehicles I remember from my last journey here, as a 22-year old college graduate in 1979. This of course would be the case, as India’s population has roughly doubled to 1.3 billion.

It is a thrilling, colorful, vibrant country, as always, and the streets and warm, friendly people are an open invitation to a photographer.

But so too are the quieter places, the ramparts of the old fort in Naguar, the less populated side of the Taj Mahal at sunrise, the crumbling havelis of Mandawa in their desuetude, the stepwells and mosques, the tombs and forts. We loved the people we met and our journey here, and vow to return.

Special thanks go to the Institute of Classical Architecture & Art, and to Lani Summerville and Cosmo Brockway for their competence and kindness.

Double-click on images and they’ll expand, and the arrow to the right will carry you along on our journey through Delhi, Agra, and Rajasthan.