When I was in India I had a slightly frustrating attempt at doing a small photography project on a family I crossed paths with, who live by a railway tracks in the north of Kolkata.
Time was short though and not having a translator proved a big handicap, although I had brought an Indian friend to speak to them on my behalf on one of the three occasions I returned.

What little I learned about them was that they were Christians, from a village outside Kolkata, and that they have lived on a patch of cardboard and material right next to a railway line for 10 years. Their children – a boy and girl – are aged seven and eight, and the father works in a warehouse. I don’t know if the kids go to school.

There was so much I wanted to do in this situation but I didn’t have the opportunity or time, which was incredibly frustrating because they were very cool about me being there and taking pictures of them. In an ideal world I think I’d spend at least a week with them, and be there at all hours of the day. That way as well hopefully they would forget about me and I’d get less camera awareness in my shots.

Maybe not succeeding in this particular project – not getting a rounded view of who these people were, and how they lived their lives – was actually a more valuable lesson for me because it focused my mind on how I should be approaching photography. If I return to Kolkata over the next year or so, as I’d like to, maybe I’ll find them again…and do things properly next time.