This photo was probably the first good ‘people shot’ I got while I was in India. I took it at Golconda Fort, a fairly popular domestic tourist attraction for Indians, with not quite so many foreigners present. We had been cruising around the place, and this young woman took a quick interest in my camera. She was separated from her group, so I asked if I could get her picture. She didn’t quite understand me, so I gestured with my camera and asked if it was ok. She hesitated, looked back at her group who weren’t paying much attention to her, and then smiled… and bobbed her head. I paused for a second. What the hell does that mean? And that was my first cultural gap experience in photography.

Of course, I knew what it meant. Kalyan explained to us that in India, while people nod and shake their heads (though I didn’t see much nodding), there’s a third option as well- the head bob. It’s kind of a smooth swaying of the head from side to side. In a way, it means ‘yes’, though in reality it isn’t quite that simple. It’s sort of a general affirmative, meaning anything from ‘yes’ to ‘yeah, I guess so’ to ‘I really am listening to you’. (You see people doing the bob all the time in general conversation while listening to each other. And yes, I’m completely aware that referring to it as ‘doing the bob’ makes it sound like a really unhip dance move.)

Being my second day in India though, I wasn’t totally used to it. After taking a second or so to process the gesture, I took the shot you see above. Afterwards, she all of a sudden became bashful. If this had happened in the States or any other Western country, I wouldn’t have thought much of it, but being in a completely different environment, I quickly began to wonder- had I made a mistake? Had I committed some sort of cultural transgression? Had I misread the bob?

I was about to find out that this sort of self-concious reaction to photography was pretty common in India.

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On several occasions, I got stopped by groups of guys who really wanted to get their picture taken with me, and I started to gather that there’s a certain coolness factor right now to being a Westerner in India. In the big Bollywood movies, you randomly see white people in the background. They don’t have speaking parts- rather, they’ll just be eating at a dinner table near the main characters in a restaurant scene, or obviously walking by as the main characters are taking a stroll. Judging by my popularity for random photos, I could probably seriously make a living as a Bollywood background extra. (Fortunately, these extras aren’t in the dancing scenes. I guess for all the hipness factor, Indians are realistic about whitey’s moves.)

I’d go along with random photo requests on the condition that I could get photographs of the people asking. I quickly learned that most men who get their photo taken, no matter how jolly and happy they were moments ago, will adopt a solemn macho pose for photographs. Women, on the other hand, remained fairly shy about photographs. Also, women weren’t asking for pictures with foreigners- it was exclusively a guy thing.

Those photos above by the way are taken in Hyderabad’s Laad Bazaar, an open air market that’s in the Old City portion of town. If you want to get your haggle on, this is the place to be. Unfortunately, I am a terrible haggler. A bit more on the market later.

Also, there is an exception to the photo self-conciousness rule. That’ll be the tease that’ll hopefully keep you coming back.