Holi in Braj

For once in a year the people of an area called “Braj”, in Uttar Pradesh,India come in an exotic and a total unique manner to celebrate what is termed as Holi the festival of colors. But unlike the rest of India what makes this so special is the fact people believe the festival started itself way back in this place itself, the land of Lord Krishna and Radha in Hindu mythology. Braj is made up of Mathura(Krishna’s birthplace), Vrindavan, (where he grew up)Nandgaon( his natal village), and Barsana (Radha’s village)– Holi .It is roots of Holi . What one finds besides the gamut of colors are women of community adorning themselves as Radha thereby reenacting scenes from the past on the streets trying to beat men with their long bamboo sticks. Specifically this is called the Lathmar Holi and is the highlight of the week long festival. The images taken in this series show scenes from Lathmar holi and other festivities that took place in Barsana and Nandgaon

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About

India, b. 1980

Siddharth is a freelance photographer from India. He took up photography after completing a degree in business administration from IIFT, Delhi in 2005 .Since then he has been selected to attend workshops such as Young Asian Photographers Workshop 2006 at Angkor Photography Festival), VII at Kashmir (2007) with Gary Knight and TPW’s Focus at Monferrato 2007 (Italy) with Stanley Greene and Kadir Van Lohuizen.

His work has been shown at festivals such as Foto Freo 2008, Fotonoviembre 2007, Musee d Elysee, Switzerland (March 07) , Angkor Photography Festival 2006 and Festival of Light 2007 as a part of group exhibitions. He has also been published for various international and national publications like Asian Geo,Himal Mag as well as selected photo competitions like Travel Photographer of the Year, Venice International Photography Competition, and so on. Of late he has won TFA awards held in Bangalore in collaboration with Tasveer.

His work is also distributed by Zuma Press (USA) and OnAsia Images (Singapore).

Currently he is working on long term book project that involves work on Rajasthan. He also covers stories of human interest.

Based in New Delhi, India, please contact him at one.phish@gmail.com.

Siddharth Jain's current location:
Delhi, India

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Holi in Braj

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