This series began as a journey through three cities of India— Varanasi, Kolkata and the temporary city of Maha Kumbh in Prayagraj, but quickly became something else. Visiting India after living abroad for over a decade, scenes appeared layered with such complexity, nuance, and a sensory intensity that I could no longer take them for granted.

Instead of presenting a coherent narrative of place, the photographs in this series reflect the sensory intensity of moving through the streets: colour without warning, faces that appear and disappear, moments that arrive too quickly to fully understand. Each image is a fragment — a brief collision of movement, light and human presence. Some scenes feel chaotic, others strangely still, but none of them resolve completely. From the solemn intensity of an Aghori at the Kumbh Mela, to the twisting ancient alleyways of Kashi, to the chaos and sensory overload of Kolkata’s flower markets, the photographs traverse a spectrum of collective experience. Their energy sits somewhere between reality and impression; between seeing and being overwhelmed.

Rather than trying to make sense of what I encountered, I allowed the images to remain unstable. The long exposures, skewed perspectives and candid street portraits all hold different kinds of tension — clarity vs blur, wonder vs disorientation, excess vs detail. Together, they form a visual experience that mirrors the feeling of being there: too much, too close, too vivid, and impossible to look away.