Monsoon Street — Kolkata Rain Season
799.00 د.إ
A Kolkata street during the June monsoon — rickshaw pullers wading through knee-deep floodwater, the reflections of neon shop signs trembling in the disturbed water surface, the chaos of Indian urban life in the rain.
Description
Kolkata’s monsoon season — June to September — transforms the city’s streets fundamentally: the dense urban grid’s drainage infrastructure, overwhelmed by 1,500mm of seasonal rainfall, floods repeatedly through the season, creating conditions that require adaptation strategies visible in the daily behaviour of the city’s residents. The hand- pulled rickshaw (thela) — still in operation in Kolkata as the only form of transport that can navigate the deepest flooding becomes both functional necessity and photographic subject in monsoon conditions. This photograph was made from a covered shopfront position on a flooded lane in North Kolkata during a June monsoon downpour, using the available fluorescent and neon shop sign illumination reflected in the flood water. The combination of motion blur on the rain, the reflections in the moving floodwater, and the sharp figures of the rickshaw pullers creates an image of exceptional visual complexity.
