03 - Photographing a cookbook, shoots in the UK & prepping for India (March 2025)
Hello, and welcome to Golden Hour, my new newsletter where I will document the in's and out's of life as a travel photographer.
The publication of ‘Monsoon’
Often as a photographer, I shoot images which I can’t share until the publication date of the book or magazine they are for. This was the case with a trip I took to India last August, capturing location images for Asma Khan’s new book ‘Monsoon’. The book was finally released at the start of this month, and it was wonderful to be able to re-live that trip, share the images, catch up with Asma again at the launch parties in London, and finally meet the wonderful team who hired me to shoot the images.
The trip was a really special one. I travelled with Asma through Delhi, where she took me to many of her favourite restaurants, street food spots, and the mosque she remembered visiting as a child. I also did a lot of solo wandering, with Asma’s guidance of places she wanted capturing for the book. I really enjoy being in Delhi, it has a lot to offer and old Delhi is particularly fascinating to explore and photograph.
After Delhi, we travelled around 3 hours by car to Aligarh, the home of Asma’s parents. I was wonderfully hosted by Farrukh and Faizana Khan in their home, and captured the family having meals, creating an Eid-like celebration, and also visited some special places in the surrounding areas. It was a lovely experience to see India through the eyes of Asma and her parents, and capture photographs for her very special book.
Shoots in the UK
It’s been another busy month of travelling around the UK, spending time in London, Yorkshire, Cumbria, Herefordshire and Liverpool. I’ve had some lovely shoots for the National Trust again, and also hosted quite a few mentorship sessions with aspiring photographers.
Prepping for India
A few weeks ago I found out I had got a 5-week job in India, which starts on April 1st. I’ll be between Bangalore and Mysore for the project, and I’m excited to get back to India and explore these cities in a lot of depth. Next months newsletter will be focused on my experience of shooting in India for such a long period. I’ll be shooting the project all digitally, but I have recently bought a Rollicord TLR which I will be taking with me, and plan to shoot during my time off. When I’m shooting commercially on digital, I really enjoy having a film camera to use during time off. It forces me to slow down and think about making different kinds of work. Fingers crossed all goes well with the camera and I have some work to share in the May newsletter.
Favourites this month
Podcast: Probably my favourite podcast is Gone to Timbuktu by Sophy Roberts, a travel writer and journalist. This month, the podcast returned for it’s second series, and the guests so far include the incredible Paul Theroux, and a fascinating interview with Jeff Young, which I highly recommend.
Exhibition: When I was in London I visited Foyles (Charring Cross Road branch) to see Michael Turek’s photo exhibition on the work he created with Sophy Roberts for her book ‘A Training School for Elephants’. Michael Turek is one of my favourite photographers, and I also really enjoyed seeing the collages of tickets, snapshots and souvenirs collected by Turek and Roberts while working on the book.
Collage displays at the Foyles exhibition (from my phone - visit in person to see the full effect!) Book: This month I picked up a wonderful book in an Oxfam book shop, it’s The Mountains Are High: a year of escape and discovery in rural China by Alec Ash. I’d never heard of this book before, but it’s been such an interesting read. Last year I travelled to China and spent some time in Dali, a region of Yunnan province. The town is backed by mountains, framed by an expansive lake, and has become a magnet for young Chinese escaping city life. The book is about this trend of moving to Dali, framed by the authors own experiences. If you are interested in Modern China or just rural escapism in general, it’s a great read.
A few final bits…
Availability - If you are a commissioner, I have availability from mid-May onwards, please get in touch at annapurnamellor@hotmail.com, and you can see my portfolio here.
As I said earlier, I will be in India for the month of April and part of May. You can follow what I get up to over on my Instagram.
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