Wading in the grace of others

I found much stillness in the chaos. A public tenderness that seems to have faded in the west as we’ve privatised our lives. These images are a collection of handprints from a recent trip to India. A brief portrait of the most populous democracy on the cusp of a global pandemic. A journey through Kerala’s backwaters and beachside towns, Karnataka and the desert festivals of Rajasthan

Trying to make sense of the stories passing me by at every moment, I felt like the dial of nuance had been cranked all the way up. This reminded me of the literary genre - magical realism, which Subhas Yadav surmises as a ‘style of narrative that fuses reality with fantastic and fabulous elements, so much so that it becomes difficult to distinguish the borderline between the two'

Moments endlessly choreographed into a mishmash of routine, togetherness and ritual. Suffering plentiful evident too. Everyday the shocking, the unexpected. India takes time and much patience to navigate.

Battling with my own insecurities around the typical pitfalls of being seen as a tourist I photographed candid tender moments I intuitively felt drawn to. Flâneur style. Searching for surreality. A boy attending the beard and moustache competition at a Rajasthani desert festival. Spending the morning with students of the ancient martial art Kalari as they train in a traditional earthen gym. Engaging in the grace of others. Trying to close the gap between I and Other. At times allowing the quiet unfolding of a moment. Like a shared secret between the eye and camera.

Leif Sebastian