True black-and-white adherents shoot bw everywhere and I really respect that and probably even envy. However, in my case, focusing on bw perception in South Asia, the most colorful region in the world, is something I can't morally afford. Despite that, I sometimes simply see "this frame is bw and nothing else". This photograph is one of these cases:
It's Pokhara, Nepal, where I am right now - 1.5 months, and 2.5 months ahead, probably. The scene was so geometric, so lovingly arranged that the color (with the excess of blue) was rather annoying than helpful.
An ancient city of Pushkar, Rajasthan, India, with an awful blue awning over the old bridge. Making it black-and-white brought peace to the image.
A tranquil scenery again in Pushkar. Excess of dirty yellow was distracting.
Varanasi, the Ganga River. Colors are pleasant here but without them the image has the same lovely atmosphere - or even better.
It was a dark alley in Varanasi, and this scene was actually disquieting but attention-grabbing like the beginning of a horror movie.
Varanasi, too:
Everything is very yellow in the frame - low sunlight, the bricks...
The boy approached me and started staring this way, trying to understand what I was. And I just clicked the button.
Let's change the location - Kolkata:
When it comes to dereliction, Kolkata is number 1. A grumpy house colonized by banyans - black-and-white exposes the essence, while the dirty colors only distract.
Another masterpiece of dereliction in Kolkata.
A tree, lol, in the same city.
More shots from amazing Kolkata:
A mix of yellow with black and brown, with random objects of screaming colors... Black-and-white brings peace and exposes the beauty of rough textures.
A man-pulled rickshaw, a signature of Kolkata.
Parked cars are another source of "hell of colors".
Jodhpur, India:
A night walk in the old town.
Let's finish the set with a zebu, a sacred animal of India:
I took this image in an off-the-beaten-path town I visited in the autumn 2025 - Churu, Rajasthan, India. I was told some of these giants are stray - people make these males go as they don't give milk. At the same time, they are respected and worshiped, and when you see a statue of the bull in front of a temple devoted to Shiva, it's Nandi, a zebu.
Hope you liked my black-and-white set, dear friend! Stay tuned - more photos and stories from South Asia are coming!
The photos were taken by me with a Nikkor 50mm f/1.8G, Nikkor 24mm f/2.8D, and a Nikkor 70-300mm on a full-frame DSLR Nikon D750 in 2025-2026 in India and Nepal