The Birth of Color | When Krishna Met Radhe

I'm pleased to feature my photo essay titled The Birth of Color-When Krishna Met Radhe with more than 20 "full-bleed" color photographs of the festival of Holi in Vrindavan and Mathura. I chose to publish this 'sampling' of photographs on Exposure, one of the photo-narrative portals that is designed to give photographers space to publish photo essays. Some of these images and others will also be published on my website.

These photographs were made during my recent The Sacred Cities Photo Expedition-Workshop to Varanasi and Vrindavan. We spent around a week photographing the festivities of Holi in Mathura and Vrindavan and in retrospect, it was one of the most difficult photo expeditions-workshops to operate due to the chaotic nature of the festival, and other factors which I address in more details here.

Part of the title to this photo essay is obviously inspired by the movie When Harry Met Sally...an iconic movie if there was ever one. There's no direct link with the movie's story, but I thought it was a catchy title. In fact, the festival of Holi is based on a number of legends; only one of which is based on the love story between Krishna and Radhe.

Producing an audio-slideshow of Holi is quite difficult because of the disparate events that took place whilst we were there. Particularly difficult is the editing that will have to go into producing a coherent audio track.

Photo © Charlotte Rush-Bailey-All Rights Reserved

Seeing the imagery I returned with, I now think whatever happened to me: getting whacked on the elbow by stick-wielding out-women during one of Holi's 'rituals', getting smothered with color powder or doused with colored water, was really worth the trouble.