Visakhapatnam and Kolkata Photography Tour - India Photography Holiday
Visakhapatnam is a treasure trove for street photographers looking to capture raw human stories, fascinating textures, and lively moments. It has the only natural harbour on India's east coast and is home to the oldest shipyard in the country. 

The Vizag Fishing Harbour is one of the most dynamic and visually rewarding locations for street photography. Early mornings are magical as fishermen return with their fresh catch, unloading baskets of fish. The old wooden boats with peeling paint, tangled nets, and chaotic energy create compelling frames. The old neighbourhoods of Visakhapatnam showcase life at its purest—locals sitting on doorsteps, children playing in narrow alleys, and food vendors preparing snacks over makeshift stoves. Streets in the Old Town and areas near the Jagadamba Junction offer a mix of street markets, quirky architecture, and candid human interactions. 

We'll also visit Poorna Market and other local bazaars - they are perfect for capturing the chaos and character of street markets. Vendors shouting prices, colourful produce, and the hustle of locals shopping create layers of storytelling in one frame. These markets are brimming with activity, vivid colours, and great opportunities for portraits of vendors and customers alike.

Kolkata was originally founded as an East India Company trading post, it was India’s capital under the British Raj from 1773–1911. It is the second largest city in India with a population of over 15 million. We will be exploring some of the best locations in the heart of Kolkata, off the beaten track. From the flower market to the railway community, the wrestlers on the river and the street of books, you will be mesmerised by the activity and richness of the scenes presenting in front of you. Mark will guide you to these incredible locations and will help you hone your street photography skills in one of his favourite cities to photograph.

Our tour will take us to on the Mullick Ghat, on the river Hoogly, where we will find one of the biggest flower markets in Asia: we’ll be there in the early morning, when the business is in full swing, to capture the stalls and their owners, the transactions and the carrying of enormous bundles of flower garlands over the shoulders. The photographic opportunities will be so many that you won’t believe your eyes. From the Mullick Ghat we will cross the Howrah Bridge to reach the Howrah Railway Station, offering a chance to photograph the famous Indian trains and their passengers looking out of the windows.

In the same area we will see early in the morning the wrestlers training on the ghat and in their traditional ring, rolling in sacred sand coming from the Ganges river. We will see their training routines and they will be wrestling each other, allowing us to be close to capture the action.

The Kumartuli area is where the clay idols are prepared for the religious festivals in Kolkata and for exporting. We will be witnessing and photographing the artists forming the straw structure of each idol completely by hand and the potters sculpting the clay around the straw skeleton, creating incredible artwork from such simple materials.

We will repeat the market experience in the Koley vegetable market, a hive of activity with heavy loads carried on heads weaving their way through throngs of buyers browsing the stalls. The richness of colours of the walls and of the produce, the haggling and the activity are mesmerising and will give us an amazing set of images. We will also be visiting the Maniktala fish market, a less crowded but fascinating covered area. The enormous curved blades used by the fishmongers to cut the fish and prepare it will set the scene for truly unique images.

One of Mark's favourite places to photograph is the Railway Community in Kolkata, with over 1000 residents living on and around train tracks that are still in use. This incredibly welcoming community literally cooks, dries the laundry, makes business, and their children of any age play on the tracks and ballast. 

The College Street Book Market is the largest book market in Asia. A paradise for book lovers and street photographers alike! A continuous line of book stalls with thousands of books in each one, their sellers sitting cross legged on piles of them and the buzz of activity of the bargaining and browsing, the rickshaws whizzing past and the students from the many universities in the area make for a fantastic experience. We will be having a refreshment at the famous Indian Coffee House on the same street.

An unforgettable experience seeing and photographing the throbbing heart of this enormous city, you will come back with an incredible set of images and memories.

We generally start early in the morning and stay out as long as participants like, then review our images each evening in a group session. On the first day there will be an introductory briefing about the 10 days ahead, highlighting what we will be looking for and where we will be going each day. Mark will also give a small presentation on street photography and techniques we can use to produce an interesting portfolio. We will talk about moments, layering, light, working the shot, background selection and more. 

This workshop is street and travel photography based, with an encouragement to shoot un-posed images containing people in a context that shows the viewer an unposed image that tells a story. We also take street portraits showing the person in context giving you a real insight into Indian life.

Mark will be with you every step of the way, from when we meet in the morning through to critique and dinner in the evening. We will split in rotating groups of two throughout the day so we will have a chance to shoot with each of the participants but also you will have the opportunity to have some quality 1-2-1 time with Mark.

Mark aims to take the participants to the next level in their photographic journey. The tours are structured in a way that will enable the participant not only to photograph extensively, but also to practice all the techniques and tips that are taught at the beginning of each tour. Mark prides himself in offering extensive 1-to-1 tutoring time with each of the participants, helping each of them in their personal journey in the street, travel and documentary photography style. Image editing, processing and reviewing are another area where Mark will help the participants improve their final output, be it a book or simply their own personal enjoyment.