I just posted a story about Art Works Downtown’s Dia de los Muertos gallery exhibition. I took all the photos with my new iPhone 4S camera. Absolutely amazing camera – though also a phone. In any case I’m loving having it with me everywhere I go. It’s gotten me back into photography.

You can see the story and all the iPhone 4S photos on my other blog, Ann Brooks Studio which I’ve usually thought of as my jewelry blog.

I was taken by the fact that this single image seemed to symbolize where India was (and still is, I’d venture) – between two views of itself, between two worlds. Traditional India in a purple turban, looking back through millennia and India in a red motorcycle helmet, rushing into the 21st-Century.

Because the image was made in haste, the focus is on the middle and distance and not on the men, as it should have been. As it is far from technically perfect, I’ve never made it available in my studio. The other day, in the middle of a major cleaning project in my home office/studio, I came across it.

Darn, I still like it and so, decided share it with you here and now.

You can see more images from my Indian trips here on my website, www.annbrooks.net or in my studio at Art Works Downtown in San Rafael, California.

Here’s the typical scene, the Columbia University Library as I walked to the 116th Street subway station. I added the second photo because I loved the history written on the Library’s frieze. Early American history.

Our near neighbors were Morningside Park and The Cathedral of Saint John the Devine.With a nursery school on the first floor of our building, the children played below my window.

During our stay, we payed homage to some of the city’s architectural wonders including a door in The Village! The cat in the doors window? — actually the reflection from the side of a pet food delivery truck. When photographing windows, reflections can be a problem. This one was a gift!

Strolled Fifth Avenue’s extravagant windows, Tiffany’s wall art and Harry’s emeralds. And a touching homage to Japan’s nuclear disaster.

Watched shoes lining up at Daffy’s on 57th and strolling the Apple Store.

On the fifth floor of the Modern Museum of Art I could see three seminal, turn into the 20th Century paintings as I stood in one spot and turned in three directions.

One day during the week, as I returned ‘home’, coming up out of the Columbia subway station,  I found revolutionaries from the ’60s at the gates, working on today’s conversions!

I was a very impressionable teenager in the 1950s, when I first set eyes on a North African souq.

My grandmother and I had been traveling independently in Europe, from Ireland and Scotland, south through England, France and Spain. It was not all that long after World War II and Europe, itself seemed very “different” to this American teenager.

But I was in no way prepared for what I would see across the Straights of Gibraltar in Morocco, in Tangiers. The French were still present there and it was not unusual to see a European woman pushing a stroller on the same sidewalk with an Arab woman, covered from head to toe, with a toddler in hand. And Coca-Cola signs in both French and Arabic — on the same sign! The snake charmer! I found it all quite amazing.

But it was the sight of the the Arabs gathered in a souq, that North African market, that sunk deeply into my psyche. That view would influence where I chose to travel in future decades and even the jewelry I make today, a half century later!

It was my first view of how other people in the world lived that seemed in no way connected to the life I had known growing up in California. It stirred my my curiosity, my passion. I knew I wanted to see, learn more about other people, far away lands.

But then, time out to marry, raise a family and I was pretty tied down for two decades. I did manage to take my own children to Europe in 1973.

The yearning did not go away. Mexico was near and satisfied some of that need. Finally, in 1989 I saw India for the first time, but it was not till 2005 that I was able to return to India and made contacts with a Muslim family in Rajasthan that I would end up doing a photo documentary about their teenage daughter the following year.

From my notes about the image: ”Rajasthani Hanki” was created in Photoshop using over 100 layers of carefully  chosen details from digital images I made in the cities of Jaipur and Jodhpur in India’s state of Rajasthan.

Rajasthan is in northwest India which abuts Pakistan on it’s western border. Historically the state has been composed of a number smaller principalities which were united into what became the largest of India’s states at the time of Independence in 1947.

Prior to statehood, the major principality in Rajasthan was the city of Jaipur (2.3 million population today) , which became the state’s capital. Another, smaller, sister principality was the city of Jodhpur, population close to one million today.

In this piece, the central image is that of a young woman selling posters of sacred Hindu imagery along a major market street in Jodhpur. This is surrounded by lacy balcony details from City Palace in Jaipur. Next are a series of women in the picturesque, walled Old Market in central Jodhpur. The remaining, lacy effects which complete the ‘hanki”, are of a variety of architectural details from various palaces in “Pink City” of Jaipur.

To summarize, photos of the women are all from Jodhpur. All architectural details are form royal palaces in Jaipur.

Cultural note: Marin County and internationally acclaimed Indian musician, the late Ali Akbar Kahn was court musician to the palace in Jodhpur for several years prior to Indian Independence.

Look for the opening of Odalisque Café, in the Art Works Downtown building on Fourth Street, San Rafael early in 2011. It will be a wonderful addition to the arts community and to all of Marin. More info on the Odalisque Café website.

Recently, over several years, I had spent about two weeks each in Jodhpur, in the state of Rajasthan in India. I was doing a still photography documentary about a Muslim girl who wanted to become a doctor and had great support from her family.

The other thing I always looked forward to in Jodhpur, was photographing in the vibrant streets, and markets in this small, ancient Indian city. I had found that about 5 p.m. each afternoon the light came streaming through the city’s major market street and was often magnificent.

It was in this street, at that hour that I took the three black and white photos in this post. The one to the right has been an award winner several times, including this year’s county fair.

Below are two others in that series. The year after I took the one with the man and the cows, I marveled that the same small street was a totally different scene – lots of motorcycles and motor scooters and no cows in site – signs of very recent prosperity!

On the right below, is a woman carrying her groceries in that 5-gallon can on her head, something else that was nowhere to be seen as prosperity took over in subsequent years.

Yes, prosperity is bringing large, rapid changes to many parts of India. It is growing harder to find “the old India”.

Technical notes: Photos were taken with my first digital SLR, a Canon Rebel XT, and the 17-85mm f/4-5.6 IS lens that I still use on my Canon 40D today. The images were then converted from color to black & white in Photoshop.

[Addendum: The Indian photos were taken in October 2005]

I had my trusty Panasonic LX3 with me, it was late in the afternoon and the shadows were long. So at times I had fun playing with the long shadows in my images. Here are some of the photos, including one of a street painting being done by Erin Castelan for the main sponsor of the event, Youth In Arts.

Every weekend at Plazuela de los Sapos – little plaza of the toads (frogs) – vendors set up shop for a lively outdoor market. It’s often referred to as Mercado de Antigüedades or Antiques Market. To me it seemed more like a flea market, and I loved it!

Saturday I went looking for little charms and trinkets to hang on bracelets yet to be designed for my jewelry studio – both online and at Art Works Downtown. I did find some wonderful little charms and other goodies which, once affixed with a loop of one type or another, can be added to bracelets. I also found pieces that can be the center focus of necklaces.

Sunday I returned to the market, hoping for more jewelry goodies and found none. However, I did have my Canon 40D with me and came home with another type of gem — great photos for my notecard series, a selection of four follows at the bottom of this post.

One of the images for notecards is the one above, “San Miguel Arcangel”,  patron saint of Puebla. San Miguel and his niche is right in the middle of the little plaza where the weekend antiques market is held. The medium for the image is Talavera tile, for which Puebla is well known.

Here’s the plaza on the weekend …                               and then, during the week.