Holi In Mathura | Phil Gribbon | Maptia

Photo © Phil Gribbon- Courtesy Maptia

What a coincidence!

I got an email from the co-founder of Maptia inquiring whether I'd be interested in having one of my photo stories featured on this new (started in September) platform that aggregates travel stories, and founded by two young entrepreneurs with a desire to build "the most inspirational map in the world."

Realizing I was virtually on my way to India on my The Sacred Cities Photo Expedition-Workshop, and to document Holi in Mathura and Vrindavan,  the discussion was to be postponed until I returned, but in the meantime, I was guided to a photo essay-story authored by Phil Gribbon, a photographer based in Cairo (another coincidence!) titled Holi In Mathura featured on Maptia.

"My traveller friends had had enough paint-throwing (the girls especially had had enough over-enthusiastic strangers rubbing them in odd places) and so skipped the excursion."

The accompanying text as penned by the photographer is highly amusing, self deprecating in parts and very witty all through. Most of Gribbon's 43 photographs seem to have been processed as if they were passed through an Instagram-like filter, and were geographically tagged as having been made in Baldeo, a town in Mathura. These are larger sized on his own website.

I've read that he arrived in Mathura, wanting to photograph this incredibly colorful festival but was not entirely ready to face the 'exuberance' of Holi. He quickly wised up and and as he says it, he wrapped his camera in plastic and gaffer tape and went for a walk through the streets nearby.

This is my last regular blog post for a while. I will post as much as I can possibly can during the coming two+ weeks, keeping my readers appraised of developments and progress during the photo expedition-workshop.