Mumbai, India
September 2006

This particular shot was taken looking out of the car window. Mumbai is full of street kids. These kids have an impressive propensity to spot foreigners even, as in this case, when I'm inside a car and it's raining heavily. They know that foreigners are more likely to give them money, so they'll tap on the window and beg. Practically every time I sat in a car I was approached by children. They don't even seem to fear the horrendous traffic situation there; it's virtually impossible to cross the roads without being run over.

The rains were unexpected. The monsoon season was meant to be over last month, so they took everyone by surprise. That's global warming for you, I guess. I have to say, standing in monsoon rains is a beautiful experience, but that's another story.

The man in the background of this shot was in a taxi and he, like many locals, stared at me (or perhaps my camera?) for as long as I was within his view. I don't know what it is with their fascination with foreigners. To give you an example of the kind of attention given, here's a shot of my mate on Juhu beach getting mehndi painted on her arm - [link] - they all literally crowded around and gazed. The scariest part is, when you ask what they're looking at, they don't react; they have no emotion in their faces at all - it's pretty freaky! It's also something one gets used to.

This shot therefore represents a number of things which were significant in this trip - beggars, sudden monsoon rains, and staring men - things that are all a distinct part of life in Mumbai!

As soon as this girl looked in through the window, I took a shot of her. I then rolled down my window and gave her some money, as I did with all the beggars I took pictures of. For people like her, as little as 20 rupees (around 25p/45 US cents) is enough to last a few days.

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Camera info:
Canon 350D, 18-55mm
F/5.6 (for DOF) at 1/250s
ISO 1600 (Admittedly, this didn't need to be so high, but I'd been taking night shots the previous night and hadn't changed the settings)

Editing:
The original shot was in colour - [link]
I converted to B&W using the channel mixer. I then adjusted the levels using this tool, as well as the curves tool. Lastly, I increased the contrast a tad, and added a border.

C'est tout.