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Capturing Rustic Cabs of Bombay

by Azhar Chougle

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It’s easy to make a ‘good’ picture of something. It’s harder to do it twice. Or thrice. Or say, fifty times. That’s what any photographer who wants to pursue the art as a profession has to come to realize. A collective of images, a tight woven net of photographs, is one that takes on meaning, it tells a story, it has weight. Pursuing a story, phenomenon or thesis is no easy task. It involves constantly expanding your horizons, broadening your view, chasing your images one after the other and then editing it into something meaningful, while always tackling with bouts constant failure.

The things closest to you (almost) always churn out the best work. I don’t mean that in physical terms. I mean it in the emotional sense. Something you care about will create work that you care about. I started documenting the rustic taxis of Bombay because they will soon disappear due to modern times. These gleaming gaudy black Padmini cabs are something I grew up around. During my commute to work I started documenting each of my journeys.

Persistence

There were a lot of days where I came back empty handed. It’s just a part of the process. You aren’t going to capture it all each day. It’s a slow and time consuming process. You have to keep shooting, and shooting a lot. For each of the images you see here, there are sometimes 25-50 shots I took in that minute or an hour before everything came together and I got it right.

You have to be willing to explore all angles of your story. That can involve travel, danger, heights, bugs, heat or what-not. I walked around past two in the morning to find empty streets and abandoned cabs. I took cabs late at night so they’d run lights and speed through sodium-lit streets.

Alert and Control

You will miss things if you aren’t paying attention. You don’t stop to pick up calls or check your e-mail when you’re out there. A very important thing I’ve come to realize is that you have to know your tools like the back of your hand. Know instinctively, without looking at them, which dial does what, in what direction can you go up an F-stop, you have to know it all like clockwork. I missed so many moments because of a wrong turn of the dial. Be ready, always, you never know what can happen and what you could miss. Sometimes the best photographs I made were the ones where I took a moment to look behind me.

Take Chances

Because that’s what makes a good story. Follow your gut. Run around, climb the stairs, wait on a bridge. Suck in everything around you through your lens. Never give up, give it time, and live in your story.

All photographs copyright Azhar Chougle.
See the full series at http://www.azharc.com/projects/bombay-taxi/

Azhar Chougle is a photojournalist who lives in Bombay, India and studies in New York, NY.

Website: http://www.azharc.com

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