Nightscapes

The assault on the senses starts the moment you exit the cab. An onslaught of people vying for attention blockade your path. Tuk-tuks, rickshaws, carts and bikes attack from every angle. Only the meandering cows are blissfully oblivious.

Our first stop, Kolkata, brought new meaning to chaos. It was noon when the Valkyrie and I collapsed onto our hotel bed.  At midnight we awoke and ventured outside. The deafening streets were mute. Buildings previously shrouded by bodies, bound by cables and encased in detritus were now exposed. This was no post-apocalyptic awakening, this was visual a revelation free of cliché.

India transforms after dark as the torrents of traffic, bodies and livestock evaporate. What is left in their wake is a window onto an extraordinary world. The streets of the dormant city are the domain of the canine. Packs on every corner perniciously guard their patch. Heavyweight rats bound and banquet along the garbage strewn pavements. Burgeoning sculptural forms are, on closer inspection, bodies cocooned in cloth. The anatomy of the urban landscape is laid bare and exposed for all to see. Detail is piled upon detail until the eye can stomach no more.

By day India moves at breakneck speed but in the dead of night the frame is frozen. People sleep where they stand; stalls by day become beds by night. Away from the cities rural India sleeps under a laden blanket of stars. Out there the elements threaten. A legion of deities is no defence from the monsoon torrents. The countryside, like its urban sibling, revels in schadenfreude.

It was these unseen scenes I wanted to capture in Nightscapes; spaces cloaked by day and naked at night became my focus. Nightscapes is a series of nocturnes composed of spectral cities, enchanted slums and rural berceuses.

The following selection are an extract of the 100+ images taken throughout India in 2014.