Aspiration and Inspiration across India with @ravimishraindia
For more of Ravi’s photos from India follow @ravimishraindia on Instagram. To see more from India’s Holi festival celebrations, explore the #holi2015 hashtag.
“I was 13, upset, angry and confused. My parents had just separated and I decided I was leaving on the next train out of town. I had no destination in mind. I could go one of two ways — one train would take me to Delhi, and the other would take my to Mumbai. With no notion of what may lay in store, I flipped a coin and let fate take control.” With that, Ravi Mishra (@ravimishraindia), a schoolboy from northern India, boarded a train headed for Mumbai and left home.
“I had no money, no place to live. I needed to find both and fast.”
In the years that passed before he spoke to his family again, Ravi worked in a parking lot, a cyber café and a Mumbai McDonald’s. He managed to finish school before taking on a job recruiting foreign tourists off the street to act as extras in Bollywood films. Eventually, he put his skills of persuasion to work as an assistant for visiting photojournalists on assignment in India, including Daniel Berehulak (@danielberehulak). “Just seeing him work, I learned so much,” says Ravi. “His dedication and the energy made was astounding. During the shoots he would give me his spare camera to photograph. This was the first time I had held a professional camera, and the sound of the first shutter is still fresh in my mind.”
As he works with a growing roster of photographers, writers and television crews, Ravi continues to pursue his own photography, often spending extra time to make his own images of the cities he visits on assignments. For the past five years, he has returned to the city of Mathura and the nearby town of Vrindavan to photograph the spring festival of Holi, where Indians celebrate by throwing colored powders and water at each other.
Ravi remains modest about his photography, saying, “I still have so much more to learn. I am aspiring because I am not a professional.” He adds, “but I also use the word aspiring because it gives freedom to my mind to learn from everyone. Photography is what keeps me going.”
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