Travel

A classic portrait, this young girl has been beautifully captured in sharp detail, with the intricate beading on her clothes sharp and clear - no mean feat in the low light found inside a tent. With everything in the background at roughly the same distance, it's been significantly blurred, ensuring that she stands out even more sharply. Her sidelong glance at the photographer suggests this is a new situation for her, and one where she has yet to feel fully at ease: a clash of cultures brought about through travel.

Beautiful lighting is what makes this portrait work. The light coming in from the side brings out all the textures in the man's face and clothing. The mottled colours of the concrete means even the 'plain' background has interest, though not so much that it draws your focus away from the main subject. While he's clearly stopped for a moment in the middle of his day's business - the bag suggests he's got something to attend to - there's a sense of peace in the portrait.

This image is really made by the combination of two things: the shallow depth of field, and the relatively limited colour palette. The young woman stands in her own plane of sharpness, with the buildings and trees beyond blurred and less distinct. The rich, warm tones of her skin and clothing are echoed in the building and small patches of visible earth, anchoring her to this place, while the pastels of the yellow flowers and blue sky give a cool, light feel to the image as a whole.

Wonderfully simple, the sloping line of the wall on the left of the picture draws your eye to the bottom of the steps, which you the follow up, looking through archways, to the pink-robed figure. The light walls to either side of the stairs also help pull your attention to the figure, small as it is within the frame. The motion within the picture suggests that however far the photographer's gone, there's just a little further to go to catch up with the person ahead.

Cleverly done, this photo has what all the best travel photos have: a unique sense of place. The photographer has taken advantage of Kolkata's rainy season to capture the city in a puddle, so you're not just seeing a scene of the city, you're seeing the city within the very surface of the city, at a very particular point in its year. The watery reflection has an almost painterly feel that makes it fascinating, where a straight image of the same scene might have felt more commonplace.