INDIA (2010): MUMBAI

The energy of Mumbai is like New York City, a gritty industrial and commercial hub. Space is at a premium on this spit of land jutting into the Indian Ocean. I stayed in the center of town in Kalbadevi, near the wholesale markets for diamonds, gold, and fabrics. Millionaires were making deals in the streets, Muslims, Hindus, Parsis, Jains, an endless list of ethnic groups jostling each other but trading together. Men in freshly pressed shirts carrying laptops crammed onto the trains that ran to and from the suburbs. I was part of the throng, swept up in the rush and busy-ness, and shooting with the camera was exhilarating. In the midst of this chaos the Ganesh Festival got under way. Thousands of statues of this elephant deity, the god of new beginnings, prosperity and education, were carried to the beach and released into the ocean. The only time anybody objected to my taking photographs was after the statues were already in the water, floating away.