Collection: Kolkata

In 2023 at the end of three months in Bhutan, Pakistan, and India, I was powerfully drawn to the slums of Kolkata: their rich color, their fascinating characters, and especially their friendly and open people. Feeling both safe and spellbound, I roamed Kolkata's worst slums day and night, meeting hustlers, con artists, thieves, drug dealers, prostitutes, addicts and beggars...but I mostly met many honest, hard-working people.

In Kolkata's slums, everyone is making something, selling something, growing something, raising something...even the children. There’s no patch of land next to a river, a canal, or a drainage ditch without a cow, a goat, or a garden. I saw kids in uniforms walking to school, and then later out playing in the streets. Kolkata's poor are busy parents and entrepreneurs eking out a living. They must. There are no social safety nets. In Kolkata people live with a purpose and that purpose is usually to support their families. I felt a powerful sense of hope in Kolkata.  The hopeless are dead.

This is a selection of photos taken in the slums of Kolkata – I hope you too can see the vitality I found so fascinating.

Images printed on Hahnemuhle heavyweight (315 gsm) 100% archival cotton "Photo Rag Baryta," with archival inks and archival spray coating. When stored, handled, and displayed under archival conditions, the prints will last over 200 years before any deterioration begins