NEW Website Launched

Please visit my new website at: http://www.LMerkPhotography.com.

Please visit the Travel and Multimedia pages, where I have uploaded some of my work.  The Photojournalism and Events pages are still under construction, but I will update you on my blog for any changes I make on my site.

Enjoy, and please feel free to leave comments!

Thanks,

       LM

Day 10:

A group of young boys smoking by the Chembur train station.

Day 9: New Housing in Vashi Naka

Today, I met up with Rahul Gaware, another worker with C.O.R.O., who graciously opened his home for me to photograph.  Rahul and his family has been living in one of the new housing buildings for 3 years, since they were displaced from their former home when the new main road was built in its place.

I plan to include this with the other images I have shot of Vashi Naka and create a complete series from this trip.  This is a complex, continuous and universal conversation about relocating communities and "slum rehabilitation" so I am very interested in continuing this project into a larger body of work - including more of Vashi Naka, as well as exploring similar project elsewhere, such as in the Philippines and Detroit.  Stay tuned for more!

Day 7: Ramdas Temple

Each morning, many of us are woken up (or at least stirred) by clanging and chanting of a group of people that pass several times beneath our hotel windows at 5:00 am.  The other morning, I was restless and decided to check out what the noise was, and found directly behind the hotel a small Hindu temple that worships the guru Samarth Ramdas.  This morning, I returned to the temple to continue photographing the people and services at the temple.

Here are a few portraits of some people who work in the temple washing the dishes and clothes:

    

Day 6: Early Morning in Vashi Naka

I wanted to capture life in the early morning in Vashi Naka, so Glen and I traveled back to the area just before sunrise to begin our shooting.

Day 5: Returning to Vashi Naka

During yesterday's visit to Vashi Naka, I became interested in the multiple projects that were occurring in that area, which are referred to as "slum redevelopment"or "slum rehabilitation where the people in the community are moved from their current homes (that are either 1 to 2 stories high) into small apartments in 7-story buildings.  I returned to the community to capture some of the current living situations and to speak with some of the residents.  I was also lucky enough to be there this evening as the community was going through their paperwork process that brought the eligible residents one step closer to moving into their new homes.

Day 4 (PM): Micro-Businesses of Cheetah Camp

CHEETAH CAMP, Trombay, Mumbai

Day 4 (AM): First Day with C.O.R.O.

VASHI NAKA, Chembur, Mumbai

Day 3: Contract Workers in Bandra

While visiting Bandra, just north of where the hotel, I came across two women who were pouring cement in between the slats of stone that were already laid down.  The graciously allowed me to photograph them, and I then later joined them for lunch with the rest of the workers.