Street Photography Darjeeling

Local people early in the morning Darjeeling Town

"If you can smell the street by looking at the photo, it's a street photograph" - Bruce Gilden, Street Photographer.

The impulse to capture candid pictures in the stream of everyday life, of people, places and things is Street Photography.
Street photography can seem deceptively simple, and very ocassionally a great street photograph is casually shot or chanced upon by an amateur; for it's not just about technical virtuosity, original composition and compelling content, but more about a sense of mystery and intrigue it leaves on its viewer.
A street photograph must capture the moment with so much of honesty and wit that it must time and again amaze, delight and move us says British Photographer Nick Turpin.

Kids looking at smartphones at Bijanbari

Street Photography is a form of documentary but it is decidedly not reportage and rarely simply tells a story. Sometimes a street photographer captures something truly unusual an extraordinary face, an accident, or a crime in the making.But more often a good street photograph is  remarkable because it makes something very ordinary seem extraordinary.

School Students having fun of ice cream near Clubstand Darjeeling

Street Photography came up in the early 1920s  when Andre Kertsz,Henri Cartier Bresson, Bill Brandt and Brassai were starting out, and tailed off in the 1970s with the early deaths of Diane Arbus,
Tony Ray Jones and a few years later, Garry Winogrand. Many of the most notable street photographers of the 1960s and 1970s, including Robert Frank, William Klein and Tod Papageorge,
took their practice in new and different directions. Although much new talents emerged in the 1980s and 1990s- Martin Parr, Tom Wood, Alex Webb and Boris Savelev are among those who stand out-
many street photographers worked away during that time receiving little public recognition for their work.

Local food stall near Chowrasta Darjeeling

With the rise of the internet for popular use, as well as a revolution in digital SLR technology in the early 2000s, street photography has undergone a resurgence.

Students way back home from school at Jorebunglow, Ghoom-Darjeeling

Today, the world's most popular photo-sharing site, Flickr, hosts over 400 dedicated street photography groups comprising nearly half a million members.

Local people early in the morning Darjeeling Town

The photographer-run website In-Public, which calls itself the 'home of street photography',clocks up 40,000-100,000 hits a month. Universities and museums now offer courses in the history and practice of street photography. Most importantly, the international reach of the practice has exploded and as soon as a good body of work is produced, whether in New York or Tashkent, a slideshow quickly circulates on the blog sites, bringing instant feedback for the hungry young photographer, sometimes only hours after a particular picture was taken.

Local market near by village Kainjalia ,Darjeeling

By streets of Lebong (Rushing towards school van), Darjeeling

Village Kids buying grocery items, Kainjalia Bazar 

Kids having fun on the streets of Bijanbari

Kids posing for the camera Near Ghoom Railway Station

Enjoying morning sunrise, Singmari ,Darjeeling

Similarly I have tried street photography at Local streets of Darjeeling and villages near Darjeeling like Kainjalia, Bijanbari,Singmari ,Pulbazar , Jorebunglow ,Ghoom ,Lebong .



Images taken and Contributed by : Gagan Khati

About the street photographer :
My name is Gagan Khati, born and raised in Kainjalay Busty, a small village amidst the hills of Darjeeling, an aspiring Street/Documentary photographer currently capturing the everyday reality on the streets of Darjeeling Hills.I am trying to freeze everyday musings, whimsies, moments of joy & stupidity, laughter & sorrow etc.I believe we all see what we want to see and I hope my photographs can be seen in many different perspective, by people of all walks of life and hopefully smell the streets of the hills of Darjeeling.