A series of environmental portraits shot on commission for Baby Cow Productions at a variety of locations in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, Kolkata and Darjeeling/Himalayas.

After a few days in India, I was finding it difficult to shoot candid imagery without being noticed, but was struck by the fervour and intensity of working life, and the granular division of labour that doesn’t exist in the UK any more. Everywhere you go, almost everyone is working, all the time, at something, often a very specific and often skilled trade.

So, I focused on portraits – whether candid or taken with the permission of the subject – of people at work, aiming to reveal something about their profession, their working environments, and more than that, their dignity, humour, determination and character. 

A series of environmental working portraits shot on commission at a variety of locations around India, in January 2018.