Friday, September 4, 2015

The Magic of The Shahi Snan Trimbakeshwar ,,2015




I was stuck beneath the Press enclosure and I had Jeetendra from Reuters for company , I tried not to get too adventurous , in moving from the place where I stood as I believed I was lucky to be inside the Kund as I shoot a storyboard I thought I would be happy with what I get and I did not want to be conspicuous I merged with the heavy saffron background ,, and here too I have restricted my frontal nudity of the Naga Sadhus in keeping with Flickr guidelines ,, as Flickr is the source and archive of my 349000 images .
When I first shot the naked Naga Sadhus at Flickr in 2003 all my pictures were moderated by Flickr staff I tried to explain to them about the culture of the Naga Sadhu their nakedness as part of their religiosity but Flickr refused to budge and till day those pictures are restricted .
And I understand that there are kids on Flickr and coy ladies who might take offense so I moderate my pictures accordingly ,,my entire bulk of Maha Kumbh pictures of the Shahi Snan are of the naked Naga Sadhus and they are all restricted ,, only Flickr members can see them..
So being a people photographer shooting culture rituals one has to self moderate your stuff however good prolific photographer you are ,,
I simply follow Flickr guidelines ,,