Fancy Bazaar - A Chaotic Indian Street Market

These photographs were captured in Fancy Bazaar, Guwahati, Assam, India. 

The market can be described as one of the crowded and chaotic street market in India. It was previously known as 'Phaasi Bazaar', later renamed as 'Fancy Bazaar'. 'Phaasi' stands for Hanging and the place was the home to the Guwahati Central Jail. Later the jail was shifted to the outskirts of the city and that was when the place was renamed.

The picture above shows the chaotic situation that prevails in this market. You can see the electric poles, a person riding his bicycle, garbage strewn in the street and so. And talking of the street vendors who are busy selling their clothes out in the open, tees are arranged randomly giving a nice disarrayed assimilation of colors.

And its pretty hazardous as well. In the photograph below, you can see tees being showcased just below power boxes.

And we have coffee mugs displayed in a fragile almost falling manner. A little disturbance and they will all fall one after the other resulting in a lot of damage. But this does not bother the vendors, for this has been the way it is done since ages.

And the clothes....

And the belts....

The market has remained the same since its inception and with the ever growing number of street vendors, it has become more and more chaotic and it has remained as one of the most important landmarks in the city. People from the city as well as nearby towns and villages stroll in the market during holidays, vacations, festival to buy goodies for their kids, relatives and themselves day after day. Most of the street vendors offer their products at a cheap price and that's a big advantage for the people. You won't find any well-known brands in the street. Of course there are boutiques in the market as well, but it is these vendors, people busy bargaining and the disarrayed display of products that adds a unique identity to this place.

Licenses available at

1) Clothes and Colors

2) Pottery Display in an Indian Market

3) Chaos in an Indian Street Market

A Creepy Silhouette

I don't know what got into me that one fine Sunday afternoon at Gwyer Hall, University of Delhi. I was clicking random photographs with my DSLR. Of course that was the same day when I clicked the Deadly Wasp photograph.

And this underwear was hung on the wires where we used to hang clothes after washing. I composed the shot such that a fine silhouette can be captured. Of course it is creepy and may take people some time to deduce what it is. But using this perverted subject to block the sun's light did result in an amazing silhouette.

Focus and Bokeh

How far can you go to achieve perfect focus and bokeh in your shot?

Bokeh means the extent to which the background of the photo gets blurred. With a wide aperture, you achieve the best possible blurriness. But another workaround is by composing the shot such that your background is far away from the subject.

This shot was taken way back in 2011 on the terrace of my home. I was practicing photography using my newly bought Nikon D3000 and concentrated on tweaking the aperture and shutter speed in Manual mode. And these bent wire grills provided a very good subject to capture. In an instant, I composed the shot and clicked and results were quite satisfactory.

Over the years, Ken Rockwell's website provided me the best tips for photography and you should check it as well. No, I am not an affliate of Ken Rockwell. But his website sure can provide ideas and tips to make the long journey of a DSLR photographer interesting. Because even with the cheapest DSLR and kit lens, you can achieve beautiful shots. The picture above is an example.

Ken Rockwell's Website