Memories of India

Lith prints

Born and raised in India, I have lived in the United States for nearly 15 years now. At this point, I’m not sure which one is really “home”. India has changed tremendously in the years since I left and there are certainly occasions when I feel like I don’t belong. But, the nostalgia I feel for the place and the people, persists every time I visit - the sounds of temple and church bells ringing, street vendors selling all sorts of wares, the sight of women making kolam designs, early mornings at the nearly empty beach or park. This series attempts to capture some of that feeling, with images created using an alternative process known as lith printing.

Lith printing is a process by which black and white or color negatives are printed in a traditional darkroom by overexposing the image on a suitable paper and developing in a dilute Lith developer. This results in an image with soft highlights and hard shadows. The process lends color to the images, with the color depending on the type of paper.