India's Elephants
My first trip to India was with photographer Steve McCurry in 2007 where I discovered Rajasthan’s rural villages and colorful festivals. During that trip, I became fascinated with several tourist elephants that were kept in a cement garage near the Amber Fort. My first photographs captured them chained to the floor with the mahout standing attentively next to them. The lives of the elephants and their keeper moved me. Both were shackled to poverty and a lifetime of indenture yet a spiritual bond existed between them that embraced a deep sense of reverence for the elephant.
