Holy men, nomads and a 110-year-old woman whose offspring populated an entire village all feature among the characters captured in stunning portraits from across India
- Wojtek Stark charted the length and breadth of the Indian subcontinent to photograph its range of diversity
- Portrait shots include a one-eyed 110-year-old who ‘lives in a village populated entirely by her own offspring’
- Also snapped is a beautiful elderly lady in Jodhpur and a toothless old man caught in the middle of his dinner
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Fascinating portraits of India’s most colourful characters have been snapped by an inspired artist – who has decided to travel to every single Indian state over the course of two years in search of the perfect photo.
Incredible portrait shots include a one-eyed 110-year-old who lives in a village populated entirely by her own offspring and their own families; a dishevelled holy man or ‘Baba’ in Pashkur and a Kashmiri woman whose expression is an embodiment of the phrase ‘a picture’s worth a thousand words’.
Another striking shot captures a beautiful elderly lady in Jodhpur and a toothless old man caught mid-snack.
Photographer Wotijek Stark said that ‘Carlsberg’ Baba Ji of Puskar (left) was ‘one of the most curious personalities I’ve ever met, a person of a very deep and enigmatic spirit at the same time.’ Another image (right) shows a man with a curiously shaped nose and wide eyes in Bhuj, Gujarat
Stark said that he was struck by the diversity of people across the length and breadth of the sub-continent. A man with a wispy white beard, wayfarer-type glasses and missing teeth can be seen posing for an image in India (left). This woman (right), who appears to be blind in one eye, is allegedly 110 years old. Stark said: ‘She has given birth to 11 children and the village this Rabari lady is living in, is populated by her offspring and marriages only’
A bespectacled man wearing a turban is pictured (left) in Puri, Orissa. Turbans are worn by adherents of both Sikhism and some Islamic sects. Sufi scholars also wear the turban as their traditional headdress. Shi’a Muslims regard turban-wearing as a ‘confirmed tradition’.Another man who is missing teeth, has dark hair, and a wispy grey beard, can be seen smiling gleefully in Kolkata (right)
A worker is photographed by Stark in New Delhi, India (right). He works in a recycling plant for a pittance. An average yearly wage for a similar role in India is just over £1,000 per annum. Another image (left) shows a wizened, turban-wearing gentleman staring intently into the camera
A dishevelled man can be seen in Vapi, Gujarat (right). A Kashmiri woman looks knowingly towards the camera (left). In August, Delhi stripped Muslim majority Kashmir of its autonomy and enforced a clamp down at mosques across the Himalayan region. Both Pakistan and India lay claim to Kashmir and an armed revolt against Indian rule has been waging for the last three decades
An elderly lady from Ajmer, Rajasthan is pictured after suffering from a stroke (left). According to reports, India has the second highest population of elderly people in the world, projected to rise to 12 per cent of the total population in 2020. An elderly ‘hipster’ is pictured in Bihar Sharif (right)
A gurning man is pictured in Varanasi (left). Stark says: ‘It’s very common in India to chew masala paan. It contains beetle nuts wrapped in a special leaf, together with spices and lime powder. When there are no teeth left and the space under the lower lip is full packed with paan then it looks like this. Incredible India!’ Stark said the lady in the right image belongs to the ‘Rabari caste’. They are semi-nomadic and live by herding camels, buffaloes and goats
Stark captioned this image of a man showing the whites of his eyes in Rishikesh, Uttarakhand (right), ‘Untitled’. A friendly-looking woman with a cross mark on her cheek can be seen smiling in Dwarka, Gujarat (left)