Weathered Blue Door India | Color Texture Photography

A Faded Blue Door Hidden in the Weathered Walls of Southern India

I am always looking at walls when I travel.

Not the freshly painted ones. I am drawn to surfaces that have accumulated years of weather, repairs, marks and human contact—the kind of wall that becomes more interesting the longer I stand in front of it.

I found this one in southern India.

A small wooden door sits almost unexpectedly within an enormous weathered wall. At first the scene seems overwhelmingly blue, but the closer I looked, the more colors began to emerge. Violet and faded red remain in the door. Pale markings and scratched graffiti wander across the wall. Stains run vertically through the surface, while patches of old paint reveal layer after layer underneath.

Then there is that tiny plant growing directly beneath the doorway.

I love details like that. Against this massive, scarred surface, a few green leaves introduce something alive and temporary. The door itself feels almost absorbed into the wall, as though both have been aging together for decades.

I photographed the scene straight on because I wanted very little interpretation between me and what I had found. The wall becomes the composition. Texture, color, scratches, stains and imperfections become the subject.

This is one of the reasons I enjoy photographing India so much. Extraordinary photographs don't always announce themselves. Sometimes there isn't a famous monument, dramatic landscape or person in front of me.

Sometimes it is simply an old blue door in a wall that thousands of people may have walked past without giving it another thought.

 © Dan Kosmayer, 2010