Mumbai-based American photographer captures the essence of Juhu beach

To see one must forget the name of the things we are looking atrdquo said French artist Claude Monet who spearheaded the Impressionism movement This art movement which found its subject in the depiction of the surroundings as a whole instead of the details of any one object continues to seep into the contemporary world And if you try not to read between the blurred lines you might actually notice an avatar of this thought process in Juhu Beach mdash courtesy American street photographer Craig BoehmanBoehman at work at the beach PicNimesh DaveThe 53yearold who hails from Oregon and has found home in Mumbai since 2013 is currently reexploring the city through a new lens quite literally The photographerrsquos most recent project includes a technique called Intentional Camera Movement ICM where the surroundings and people emerge as distinct smeared shadows ldquoICM is a technique that requires the shutter speed to be very slow While I prefer to keep the speed to be a quarter of a second some even go up to half a second to achieve their desired outputrdquo Boehman explains ldquoICM helps me give my work an impressionistic appearance I cannot paint and so this method allows me to take photographs that look like paintingsrdquoA woman holds up her dupatta against the breezeBoehman who is currently based in Goregaon has spent 11 years exploring the lengths of the cityrsquos streets starting from Bandra The past year has been dedicated to experimenting with ICM ldquoI came to Mumbai with my wife Alokananda Dasgupta We met in a school in Toronto in 2007 and fell in love By 2013 she was at the peak of her career in Mumbai As a photographer I had no such restrictions to stay in the USA So I came here with her and have accepted Mumbai as my home ever sincerdquo he reminisces Taking to the fast life of the city and even the high temperatures wasnrsquot that difficult for Boehman ldquoI adapted to the heat in a couple of months The language however continues to be a barrier I can speak enough Hindi now to get directions For instance ldquoYeh rasta kaha jaata hairdquo he rattles off in an American accentA tourist clicks a selfie with the sea in the backdropThe will to take up street photography fulltime only emerged upon his arrival in the city Boehman shares ldquoI took a course in biomedical photography in college but the programme was abandoned somewhere near the end of it I didnrsquot like that field of studying mdash it was boring But the very first attempt at something artistic probably was picking up an old Polaroid instant camera and taking pictures with it when I was a kid I was never encouraged with a camera but I remember using up all the film and flashbulbs whenever an adult likely grandparents would let me I indulged in a lot of music and poetry as a young adult and eventually found my way back to street photography after landing in Indiardquo he sharesPolicemen on patrolling dutyWhile his favourite place to walk around in Mumbai is Aarey Colony Juhu made for the perfect location to experiment with ICM due the crowds that gather in this public space Some of these works have also been selected to be featured on New Mexicorsquos photography community Santa Fe Workshopsrsquo website He will also be taking a lecture on ICM online on May 18 open to global audiences for the platform ldquoPhotography came easy to me but street photography required a lot of dedication to get it right Circling back all of my fine art photography works are sourced from my experience in street photography including ICMrdquo he signs offLog on to craigboehmancom to buy limitededition ICM prints santafeworkshopscom to see his featured works and sign up for the workshop