A man, clutching his chillum, gazes over the throngs of devotees gathered at the world’s largest religious festival, Kumba Mela, in Allahabad, India. Millions come during this holiest of Hindu religious festivals to bathe away their sins with a “Holy Dip” in the sacred River Ganges.
India is, the cradle of the human race, the birthplace of human speech, the mother of history, the grandmother of legend, and the great grand mother of tradition. our most valuable and most instructive materials in the history of man are treasured up in India only. ____Mark Twain
“The Observer” is a composite of two photographs, the man in the foreground and the scene of the faithful bathing in the Ganges. I added texture and color as well, to give the image a timeless, nostalgic quality that is India.