On showing up before sunrise, for weeks, until the market lets you in.
The Mullick Ghat flower market opens before most of Kolkata wakes up. By 5am, the colours are already blinding — orange marigolds stacked six feet high, rose petals scattered across wet concrete, vendors moving with a rhythm practiced for generations.
When I first started photographing here, I made every mistake a photographer makes. I was too close. Then too far. The market does not reward haste. It rewards presence.
After about two months of showing up, something shifted. The same vendors who had looked away started nodding at me. That is what patience buys you in Kolkata. Not just better photographs. Real access.
Shivam Pandey
Born in Varanasi, shaped by Kolkata — Shivam Pandey has spent over a decade reading the streets before the camera comes out. That's the skill he passes on: not technique, but awareness.
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