Portrait Photography - Connecting beyond words

Travel is one of the most mind expanding things I have done in my life.
Taking my camera to capture the culture is also incredible.
Finding the balance between seizing the real essence of the moment,
and taking an intimate peek into the lives of others with a lens
can sometimes feel awkward, and at times even intrusive.

While in India, I was amazed at the response from people
when they saw I had a camera in my hand.
I imagine that many of these people have never had their picture taken
by a "white woman" before -- perhaps by the way they looked at me,
some may have never seen one!

99% of the people didn't shy away, turn away, or try to avoid the camera in any way.
As a matter of fact, most of them acted like they were honored to have their photo taken,
as if they were going to be celebrities - acting grateful just to be seen.

I took this photo of a man during his lunch break.
He saw me with my camera, stood up and walked toward me.
Then looked me straight in the eye.
I nodded at him (since neither of us spoke the others' language).
He nodded back and came a little closer.

I took a few shots, and he just continued to stand there, staring directly at me.  
The other men and women also left their lunches and began to gather around.
This one shot turned into an entire photoshoot of this
group of lovely people under the trees with their bicycles.
They offered me some of their lunch, I sat down with them,
and we continued to communicate without words.

This is just one of the thousands of photos I took
on my month long trip to this amazing country.
Many of my photos were of the people,
living their daily lives so different than we do in the U.S.
I love how personable they were with me, a stranger,
and though most of us never spoke,
we shared some very intimate and connected moments.

I'm grateful for the opportunity to share my photography.

Perhaps you too will get in on the challenges provided by @juliank:

Monday: foodphotography and animalphotography
Tuesday: landscapephotography and cityscapephotography
Wednesday: architecturalphotography and vehiclephotography
Thursday: macrophotography and colourfulphotography
Friday: streetphotography and portraitphotography
Saturday: sportsphotography and smartphonephotography
Sunday: goldenhourphotography and longexposurephotography