When I was 19 years old I had the opportunity to spend a month in Kolkata, India.
Someone bought me a Nikon F-601 with some kind of kit lens for my trip. This was the first roll of film I ever shot. I had no idea what I was doing. I’ve since lost the negatives, but I am glad I still have some scans, no matter how low quality they are.
We stayed in the Narendrapur neighborhood quite a long way away from the parts of old Kolkata I would later love. In many ways, this trip was the start of a long affair with many, many things that are now huge parts of my life: with India, especially West Bengal, to which I would return repeatedly for the decades after. (Until Covid-19 in Jan 2020, I spent 2-3 months in India each year between 2004 and 2020, on multiple trips and visits of varying lengths) With film photography. With parts of my creative career (I met many early collaborators during this period). Most of all, with the food of South Asia.
At the time, I was not used to the fully vegetarian meals served by my hosts. So in the evenings, I would wander out to get either a chicken kathi roll or a tandoori tangdi kebab. These photographs were taken on those walks.
In many ways, every time I shoot a roll of film, I’m still chasing that high: a high of doing something fun for the first time, and getting to meet people and try new things all at once.
