Rameswaram, Tamil Nadu, India, 2020. As the fourth stop in my documentary project on Indian coastal towns, Rameswaram stands out for its unique character. Nestled on the Tamil Nadu coastline, it’s a major pilgrimage site for Hindus. Each day, thousands of devotees make their way to the Ramanathaswamy Temple, a sacred shrine dedicated to the god Shiva.
While Rameswaram isn’t a typical seaside resort with the charm of a holiday destination, it still draws a segment of India’s middle class, the very people I aim to capture in my documentary photography. My goal is to document these moments of daily life with an approach inspired by street photography.
As soon as I dropped my bags at the guesthouse, I headed straight to the shoreline. The shades of blue, the simple, tranquil rhythm of the stalls lining the coast, and the scene that greeted me, a woman in a sari in the foreground, with a man standing still in the water in the distance, all struck me immediately. The light, though strong, was softened by the infinite variations of ocean blues, creating a delicate harmony between the figures’ movements and the natural elements around them.
Everything felt calm and soothing. I stood there, observing, and began to take pictures. The rhythm of the scene was defined by the bodies and the structures of the market stalls. While the woman moved lightly, the man remained completely still. In that moment, I sought balance in the shapes, contrast in the lines, and tension between the foreground and the background , all key elements in street photography. Then, the boat. Far away, yet unmistakably present. It completed an invisible triangle formed by the two figures and the horizon. Suddenly, everything seemed to align perfectly.
Even now, whenever I look at this photograph, a deep sense of calm washes over me. It’s as though I’m transported back to that precious moment, suspended in time, where everything felt in perfect balance. This photograph holds a special place in my collection of documentary work – a memory forever tied to the emotional stillness of that instant.
