The meter reader of Jodhpur
A photo story by Travelshooters client Karoly Kerepesi
On our recent photography tour of Rajasthan and Pushkar Camel Fair, one of our clients and co-travellers was Mr Karoly Kerepesi from Hungary. A few days into the trip, Karoly's street explorations capured a little social vignette unfolding spontaneously on the street — an electricity company meter-reader doing his job — which Karoly's timely captures turned into a brilliant photo-essay. For me, Karoly's patient style and technical brilliance perfectly encapsulates the Travelshooters mantra — Experience, Connect, Understand, Shoot — and at my request, Karoly now describes the story he uncovered one quiet Jodhpur morning…
“It was the day after Diwali and the Blue City was still sleeping the early morning when I started my shooting tour. I was walking the narrow streets up and downhill following my instinct. I kept the sun behind my back so I could take advantage of the low angle sunshine to take shots of the spectacular blue and pink colors of the houses and to capture the glow of the smile of the friendly people who already woke up and appeared in the colorful windows and doors of their homes. It was really a kind of flow, walking slowly, enjoying the warm sunshine, feeling the mood of Jodhpur and taking photos in a continuous uninterrupted row.
“I was just standing in front of a beautiful blue and red facade with a nice green door and wondering whether I should wait until someone opens it and pops up to give meaning to the picture when I have seen someone coming downhill straight to the house. He moved swiftly — which drew immediate attention in the sleepy narrow street — keeping his pen and papers in his hand and he was scouting around. I realized on the spot he was a meter reader. What a chance! — came through my mind.
"I stepped up to him, greeted and introduced myself. I am from an electricity company from Europe so we are colleagues — I started the conversation. We have discussed some issues of our industry, exchanged ideas and concluded that we could be proud of our profession. Finally he indicated that he needed to get on with his work, and I followed and saw him starting to inspect meters… and that's how the picture story you see here unfolded."
