This photographer is requesting strangers in Mumbai to smile for ongoing project

On a Wednesday morning the cottages that line St Roques Road in Bandra bask in the winter sun The lane is quiet except for the occasional bark of a pet or scooters zooming off into the nearby Ranwar village As a taxi driver wipes the dust off his kaali peeli Jay Weinstein approaches him with a camera in tow He doesnt ask for his name ethnicity or life story only for a couple of photographs Seeing him puzzled the Australianorigin photographer breaks into crisp Hindi Main kahin bhi jaata hoon anjaane logon ki tasveer banata hoon Wherever IacircAcircu00c2u0080Acircu00c2u0088go I make images of strangersHearing the familiar language the driver is game to play the subject First hes asked to wipe the expression off his face and stand next to his cab Satisfied with the shot Weinstein tells him Ab muskuraiye now smile and captures his wide grin on camera The interaction lasts only for a few minutes but we spot the driver smiling even after Weinsteins DSLR is back in his bagJay Weinstein documents the smile of a taxi driver in Bandra PicsBipin KokateThis connection forms the essence of the 38yearolds ongoing photography project So I Asked Them to Smile SIATS Over the last two years Weinstein has shared 250 portrait pairs nonsmiling and smiling frames of kids and adults from all walks of life on digital platforms Next week he will display 30 most compelling frames for the first time at an exhibitionThe photographer shows the images he takes to each subjectThe backstoryIt was a trip to Bikaner in 2013 that gave birth to this project When Weinstein raised the camera to photograph a man with a wispy beard he was greeted with a stern look Miffed he turned away only to hear the man urging him to take his picture We make judgments about strangers in binaries as friendlyunfriendly or goodbad These are rarely accurate The idea is to change the way we view a stranger and see how their smile changes our assumptions says the USborn photographer who spent his growing up years in Vrindavan studied recreational sports coaching in Australia and returned to Mumbai in 2004 to pursue actingHe was jumping around in the water with a friend one afternoon as I wandered down Juhu Beach says the photographerSoon he ventured into advertising and rekindled his love for travel and photography It gave me a reason to notice things that we walk past and start conversations with strangersacircAcircu00c2u0080Acircu00c2u0088says Weinstein who considers the art meditative The calmer you are the more of the outside world you noticeShe was exploring the stunningly restored Kaiyuan temple complex one evening with her daughter in Quanzhou Fujian ChinaSay cheeseFor the last few years he has turned a fulltime traveller and spends most of his time in India I love Mumbai but when you step out you realise how different the rest of India is shares Weinstein who has visited Meghalaya the interiors of Maharashtra Orchha in Madhya Pradesh and the coast of Kerala where he found his subjects to be camerashy In rural areas I also had to translate smile as daat dikhaao since they dont understand the meaning of muskuranaLanguage also poses a barrier in nonEnglish speaking countries In China instead of say cheese they say chetz which means eggplant he laughs Whats the next country on his wishlist Pakistan The projects initial followers were Pakistanis I assumed they wouldnt be happy seeing these photographs but realised where else would they have seen images of Indians as humans without an agenda Indians dont get to see their photographs this way eitherFrom December 20 to 26 11 am to 7 pmAt Jehangir Art Gallery Kala GhodaCall 8828472412Go clickhappy heregtgt Homi Modi Street in Fortgtgt Industrial estates in Lower Parelgtgt Village neighbourhoods like Chuim and Chimbai in Bandra WestPortraitmaking tipsWhile there is enough information about how to get your technique right Id suggest you interact with your subjects and treat them with dignityCatch up on all the latest Mumbai news current affairs from Mumbai local news crime news and breaking headlines hereDownload the new midday Android and iOS apps to get updates on all the latest and trending stories on the go