Before the recent launch of Xiaomi Note 3, I was commissioned by Xiaomi to use the phone-camera and create a collection of colourful images. Here is the set of images created during my assignment. Do have a look at the them below, and scroll down to read-on about my thoughts on photography with a mobile-phone.
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Until now, I hadn’t taken mobile-phone photography seriously. My slightly older smartphone did not have a very powerful camera. Although I kept reading about how much better the phone-cameras are becoming, I wasn’t too sure. Using the Xiaomi Note 3 helped me change my opinion about smart-phone cameras. Today’s phone-cameras can easily create good quality images, which could once be made only with a decent quality dedicated digital camera.
Ali is a washerman who spends his morning hours washing clothes near Prabhu Ghat and letting them dry on an open ground on the bluff nearby. Strolling through the lanes of Varanasi, I saw him resting under the ficus tree after finishing the day’s work.
This photograph was made in a small village at edge of Tonle Sap Lake. It was a sunny afternoon and I was walking with my Cambodian friend along the narrow street that connected practically every house in the village. Houses on both side of the road were built on stilts to make room for rising water levels during the high season. At some point, when the village ended and the vast expanse of Tonle Sap began, the road dipped into the water and disappeared. I was standing at the edge of water and watched the life go by. Children played, ran behind each other and splashed water on their friends. Adults went about their daily transactions – some people conversing leisurely with their neighbours, some bringing in fish for sale, some transporting goods on their motorcycles. The one common thread among all of them was the leisurely pace they did things in. No one was in a hurry, no one was anxious and no one looked like they took anything seriously. Most importantly, no one appeared to be worried about the next day and no faces showed creases on the forehead.
At some point, I turned around to look at the road I walked through, and found this charming lady in a saturated orange jacket and a hat riding towards the edge of the water. She, rather her clothes, instantly caught my attention.
Her bike was also of equal interest. The two-wheeler seemed to be counting its days and ready to disintegrate into the earth any moment. And yet, this isn’t the most ramshackle automobile I have seen in Cambodia – they ride bikes in much worse conditions, usually functioning fairly well. Honda Dream is the most popular mode of transport in the country, and perhaps the longevity promised by Japanese automobile companies plays a key role here.