Photographer celebrates the living streets of Delhi

Celebrating the ordinary is the style of photographer Rajan Bhatt.
He notices what eludes the ordinary eye and immortalises it with his camera. And the unclaimed streets of Delhi are his latest subjects.
In 'Delhi Direct: An Ode to Living Streets of Delhi', an ongoing exhibition at the India Habitat Centre here, Bhatt has captured the humble life that has been thriving on the streets of the city.
"I feel that everything ordinary around us has beauty in it. I enjoy every ordinary movement and that is what I capture in my photographs," Bhatt told PTI.
He walks and scrutinises the streets like stray dogs, which, more than often, creep into his frames.

A striking picture in his collection is that of one such dog playing with a mannequin head.

"The stray dogs are everywhere and they experience everything and more that the streets have to offer. This understanding touches a chord, deep inside my heart and I just wish to be able to capture the essence of streets through my lens, as closely as these canines do.
"These creatures might have a completely different perspective that we may not understand. They see and observe everything," the photographer said.
From street vendors and high wire walkers, to rickshaw pullers and paan vendors, Bhatt, through his lens, expresses his affection and appreciation for a life that is so modest that it fails to garner any attention from the passersby.

But, Bhatt has captured these moments and that too in greyscale, featuring an interplay of light and shadow that reflects a kind of excitement one associates with the mercurial nature of a traveller.
"Clicking the pictures in black and white, I believe, is the natural way of presenting the subjects as they are. Color is common," he said.