Israeli-born commercial photographer Sephi Bergerson tells Rrishi Raote how he turned his taste for pavement eating into a book
How did this book come about?
I got a call from a food stylist who said, listen, I want to come to India and do something on food. I said let’s do something on street food, because I love street food. He said that’s a great idea, why don’t you start shooting? So I went out to Paharganj with two rolls of film, and there were five or six images that I really liked — from the first day of shooting! I showed them to one of my first friends in India, and he started salivating: This is making me hungry! The stylist didn’t come to India, but I kept shooting.
Did you travel a lot?
I shot all over. Sometimes I went to a specific place just for street food. I went to Varanasi, Calcutta, Bombay, Amritsar, Jaipur, I spent a day in Ahmedabad, Udaipur, Hyderabad. I was in Assam. It started adding up.
How do you make sure that people in your photos behave naturally?
I come, I eat a little bit first, talk with them a little bit — picking up the camera is just a natural thing. When you just say a word or two [in Hindi] you’re already making friends, they’re already offering me to eat without paying.
You fear for the future of street food.
You will always be able to get a golgappa or an aloo tikki — but not from this guy on the street. It’ll become harnessed and tamed. I see the decline of this lifestyle but I think most people in India don’t notice it. For me, these are jewels on the street. There’s a guy selling chhole-kulcha in Old Delhi. He gives chhole with beetroot, gajar, dhania... it’s a whole big salad.
The taste is amazing. The same chhole-kulcha next to the MTNL building would just be simple: chhole and chalo! In a few years there will be a chain for golgappas, and it’ll be really clean, the same way you’re getting a hamburger today. So this book is a documentary of a time in India that is never going to come back. You’re going to look at these pictures and say, remember that? One day it’s not going to be there.
