05 February, 2015
India has the ability to conjure a multitude of different images unique to each person that visits it. Most of us may get an immediate view of images like one of these: a herd of skinny cows scattered all over a barren, over-grazed field; trains and buses overcrowded with people on its roof; naked yogis and Sadhus, beggars etc.
To photographer Claudia Legge the word India conjures a mood, a way of life, and a feeling. The colours with which the people paint their homes and dress themselves (they are amongst the most fashion conscious of cultures) represent an identity and an individuality which combines to create a sumptuous mantle over the poverty and dirt. It is not so much covering over the cracks as ignoring them, and celebrating instead beauty and optimism brilliantly conveyed in this series of images.
