Wednesday September 14, 2005, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA

Daily Life in India

At its current population rate, India is projected to surpass China in the 21st Century and have a population of 1.5 Billion by the year 2050.

Credit: Sam Hollenshead / Polaris

Tuesday March 14, 2006, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India

Holi celebrations hit Mumbai

Residents of Mumbai take part in Holi celebrations. Holi, a festival celebrating the arrival of spring, occurs on a full moon and serves as a time when people mingle, dance and throw colorful paint on one another, regardless of caste or creed.

Holi celebrants dance in a circle.

Credit: Sam Hollenshead / Polaris

Wednesday March 15, 2006, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India

Holi celebrations hit Mumbai

Residents of Mumbai take part in Holi celebrations. Holi, a festival celebrating the arrival of spring, occurs on a full moon and serves as a time when people mingle, dance and throw colorful paint on one another, regardless of caste or creed.

Men covered in paint.

Credit: Sam Hollenshead / Polaris

Tuesday March 14, 2006, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India

Holi celebrations hit Mumbai

Residents of Mumbai take part in Holi celebrations. Holi, a festival celebrating the arrival of spring, occurs on a full moon and serves as a time when people mingle, dance and throw colorful paint on one another, regardless of caste or creed.

Holi celebrants.

Credit: Sam Hollenshead / Polaris

Tuesday March 14, 2006, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India

Holi celebrations hit Mumbai

Residents of Mumbai take part in Holi celebrations. Holi, a festival celebrating the arrival of spring, occurs on a full moon and serves as a time when people mingle, dance and throw colorful paint on one another, regardless of caste or creed.

Women gather below colorful flags hanging during Holi celebrations.

Credit: Sam Hollenshead / Polaris

Friday February 24, 2006, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India

Indian reality TV

Sa Re Ga Ma Pa is an Indian reality contest in which aspiring singers compete to be considered India's best upcoming singer/musical performer. During the show contestants compete in front of four "Magical Mentors" from Bollywood (Adesh Shrivastav, Jatin - Lalit, Himesh Reshammiya and Ismail Darbar) who are famous Indian musicians. Contestants are paired with a mentor, thus the show is also a competition between the mentors to cultivate the best artist/team. Finalists: Debojit Saha (winner) is a 29-year-old civil engineer by training from Silchar: Assam, Vinit Singh (runner-up) from Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh, is a 17-year-old student who dropped out of his 12th year of school to participate in Sa Re Ga Ma Pa. Mentors of the finalists: Ismail Darbar mentor of Debojit Saha, Himesh Reshammiya, mentor of Vinit Singh. The host of Sa Re Ga Ma Pa is Shaan: a famous Bollywood playback singer. The finals were filmed before a live audience at the Andheri Sports Complex in the Andheri neighborhood of Mumbai.

Members of the audience cheer for their favorites during the final contest of the Indian reality TV show Sa Re Ga Ma Pa.

Credit: Sam Hollenshead / Polaris

Tuesday March 14, 2006, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India

Holi celebrations hit Mumbai

Residents of Mumbai take part in Holi celebrations. Holi, a festival celebrating the arrival of spring, occurs on a full moon and serves as a time when people mingle, dance and throw colorful paint on one another, regardless of caste or creed.

Families attend Holi celebrations.

Credit: Sam Hollenshead / Polaris

Thursday March 2, 2006, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India

Muslims protest U.S. President George W. Bush's visit to India in Mumbai

Various Muslim organizations staged a protest at Azad Maidan, a park in central Mumbai against U.S. President George W. Bush's visit to India. They chanted slogans against Bush for attacking Iraq and against the Danish cartoonist for blaspheming Muhammad.

A protestor among hundreds raises both his arms as he yells slogans.

Credit: Sam Hollenshead / Polaris

Thursday March 2, 2006, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India

Muslims protest U.S. President George W. Bush's visit to India in Mumbai

Various Muslim organizations staged a protest at Azad Maidan, a park in central Mumbai against U.S. President George W. Bush's visit to India. They chanted slogans against Bush for attacking Iraq and against the Danish cartoonist for blaspheming Muhammad.

Thousands of protestors.

Credit: Sam Hollenshead / Polaris

Thursday March 2, 2006, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India

Muslims protest U.S. President George W. Bush's visit to India in Mumbai

Various Muslim organizations staged a protest at Azad Maidan, a park in central Mumbai against U.S. President George W. Bush's visit to India. They chanted slogans against Bush for attacking Iraq and against the Danish cartoonist for blaspheming Muhammad.

Protestors gather at Azad Maidan with the cityscape in the background.

Credit: Sam Hollenshead / Polaris

Sunday March 12, 2006, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India

Wealthy Mumbai night life

Members of Mumbai high society gather at the opening party of The Tasting Room, a new wine bar in Mumbai. Economic growth and globalization are allowing locales like The Tasting Room to multiply in modern India. Demand for western style bars and restaurants has coincided with economic expansion and the creation of new wealth in the country.

Bottles of wine at the opening reception of a new wine bar.

Credit: Sam Hollenshead / Polaris

Tuesday March 14, 2006, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India

Holi celebrations hit Mumbai

Residents of Mumbai take part in Holi celebrations. Holi, a festival celebrating the arrival of spring, occurs on a full moon and serves as a time when people mingle, dance and throw colorful paint on one another, regardless of caste or creed.

Children take part in Holi celebrations.

Credit: Sam Hollenshead / Polaris

Tuesday March 14, 2006, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India

Holi celebrations hit Mumbai

Residents of Mumbai take part in Holi celebrations. Holi, a festival celebrating the arrival of spring, occurs on a full moon and serves as a time when people mingle, dance and throw colorful paint on one another, regardless of caste or creed.

An elderly woman sits on a sidewalk, amid Holi celebrants.

Credit: Sam Hollenshead / Polaris

Friday March 10, 2006, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India

Trading through the Mumbai Stock Exchange

With the advent of the internet and its ability to allow stock traders to work from virtually anywhere, the Bombay Stock Exchange building no longer acts as the venue for transactions passing through its network. Rather, all trades are now performed online in the trading rooms of financial brokerage houses.

The Bombay Stock Exchange building.

Credit: Sam Hollenshead / Polaris

Friday March 24, 2006, Mumbai, Maharasthra, India

Trading through the Mumbai Stock Exchange

With the advent of the internet and its ability to allow stock traders to work from virtually anywhere, the Bombay Stock Exchange building no longer acts as the venue for transactions passing through its network. Rather, all trades are now performed online in the trading rooms of financial brokerage houses the likes of Motilal Oswal Securities.

A stock trader reacts positively while conducting transactions.

Credit: Sam Hollenshead / Polaris

Thursday March 16, 2006, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India

Chicken sales continue in Mumbai despite bird flu outbreak

Despite the detection of a second case of bird flu in the Indian region of Maharashtra, poultry sales at Mumbai's Crawford Market are continuing unabated. Police have sealed four infected villages near the town of Jalgaon, 500 km northwest of Mumbai and authorities have begun the culling of some 10,000 chickens in the region.

Chickens sit in cages at Crawford Market.

Credit: Sam Hollenshead / Polaris

Thursday March 9, 2006, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India

Shopping malls spell doom for traditional Indian life

The Inorbit Mall, located in Mumbai's Malad neighborhood, was developed by the K. Raheja Corporation as part of its efforts to “put India on the global map." Local residents have complained however, that the mall has contributed to the “Americanization" of Indian life and the downfall of tradition.

Vehicles pass by outside the Inorbit mall.

Credit: Sam Hollenshead / Polaris

Monday February 20, 2006, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India

Scenes of modern life in Mumbai, India

Life in India is mixture of the traditional and the modern. In the city of Mumbai the Matunga station is a local stop along Mumbai Western Railway commuter line which transports millions of passengers daily and help keep the city functioning. At rush hour, trains are so packed that passengers must hang outside of the doors. Every year hundreds of passengers are killed or maimed while traveling on commuter trains when their bodies hit objects located outside the train doors. Marine Drive is a famous curved road in Mumbai that runs along the Back Bay, which connects to the Arabian Sea. Many Mumbai citizens come to Marine Drive to walk, sit and relax. Unlike the rest of India where rickshaws are the primary mode of rented transportation, taxi cabs are the common vehicle in Mumbai. At the Shri Sadguru Saibaba roadside temple, worshipers come and perform puja, a traditional Hindu ceremony of prayer.

Fishing boats in the Colaba section of Mumbai looking out on Nariman Point.

Credit: Sam Hollenshead / Polaris

Wednesday March 8, 2006, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India

Daily life in Mumbai

The Indian city of Mumbai, which boasts a population of 18 million, serves as a hub for numerous financial institutions, including the Bombay Stock Exchange and the Reserve Bank of India. The city's glitzy financial district belies the many problems faced by a large urban center the likes of Mumbai. Moderate crime, poverty and poor health care are all problems faced by many of the city's inhabitants.

A construction crane rests atop a highrise building on the Mumbai city skyline.

Credit: Sam Hollenshead / Polaris

Thursday February 23, 2006, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India

Luxury shopping in India

Shoppers browse a Louis Vuitton store located within the Taj Hotel. In India, where the consumption of imported luxury goods has increased as a result of trade liberalization, shoppers now have access to high-end goods the likes of Louis Vuitton, Prada and Bentley Cars that were once unavailable to them.

L-R: Imran Merchant assists Nikuntha Ahuja with purses and bags at a Louis Vuitton store.

Credit: Sam Hollenshead / Polaris

Wednesday February 22, 2006, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India

Scenes of modern life in Mumbai, India

Life in India is mixture of the traditional and the modern. In the city of Mumbai the Matunga station is a local stop along Mumbai Western Railway commuter line which transports millions of passengers daily and help keep the city functioning. At rush hour, trains are so packed that passengers must hang outside of the doors. Every year hundreds of passengers are killed or maimed while traveling on commuter trains when their bodies hit objects located outside the train doors. Marine Drive is a famous curved road in Mumbai that runs along the Back Bay, which connects to the Arabian Sea. Many Mumbai citizens come to Marine Drive to walk, sit and relax. Unlike the rest of India where rickshaws are the primary mode of rented transportation, taxi cabs are the common vehicle in Mumbai. At the Shri Sadguru Saibaba roadside temple, worshipers come and perform puja, a traditional Hindu ceremony of prayer.

Cowherds cross Bubalnath Marg (Road) with their cows in central Mumbai.

Credit: Sam Hollenshead / Polaris

Wednesday September 14, 2005, Peru

Salt Falts

Salt is extracted by workers who have worked for generations in Peru's Salt Falts

Salt flats in Peru.

Credit: Sam Hollenshead / Polaris

Sunday August 8, 2004

Credit: Sam Hollenshead / Polaris

Wednesday September 14, 2005

Credit: Sam Hollenshead / Polaris

Thursday August 14, 2003, New York, New York, USA

Blackout in NYC

New Yorkers cope with the blackout in Manhattan on after a cascading blackout caused much of the Northeastern United States to lose power.

Pedestrians cross the Brooklyn Bridge after night-fall on a New York City without electricity.

Credit: Sam Hollenshead / Polaris

Monday June 2, 2003, New York, New York, USA

New York City's waste-management process

Ranjit "Ronnie" Raghubir, a LIUNA 108 member and forklift operator moves compacted trash at a waste transfer station in the Bronx.

A forklift operator moves compacted trash.

Credit: Sam Hollenshead / Polaris

Saturday September 11, 2004

Credit: Sam Hollenshead / Polaris

Friday March 5, 2004, Staton Island, New York, USA

Harbor workers in New York

A tugboat and cargo ship are docked at Howland Hook container port during a dense fog that limited the movement of commercial maritime traffic in New York Harbor.

Credit: Sam Hollenshead / Polaris

Thursday April 15, 2004, Long Island Sound, New York, USA

Tug Boat Workers

Fedrick Roberts: a deckhand on the Megan McAllister tugboat.

Credit: Sam Hollenshead / Polaris

Sam Hollenshead

Sam Hollenshead grew up in Ann Arbor, Michigan and graduated from the University of Michigan with a degree in anthropology. During college, he discovered a personal fascination with manual labor, economics, and infrastructure and began focusing his photographic efforts on these subjects.

In 2001 he moved to New York City where he began taking photos for labor unions throughout the metropolitan area. After 9/11, he documented workers at the World Trade Center site clearing debris and rebuilding damaged subway lines. Images from this project were published in the New York Times Magazine and displayed at the Museum of the City of New York. A second exhibition of these photographs will be shown at the New York City Transit Museum in the fall of 2006.

From January 2004 to January 2006, Sam worked as a deckhand on tugboats based out of New York Harbor. He stepped away from photography to work as a deckhand in order to 1) internalize the subject of labor by becoming a physical laborer himself and 2) to study firsthand the global movement of manufactured goods and petroleum products. During his tenure as a deckhand, he traveled to ports along the East Coast of the United States and gained an in depth understanding of maritime infrastructure and international shipping and commerce.

In February 2006, Sam returned to photography and moved to Mumbai, India where he plans to be based indefinitely.

Personal web site of Sam Hollenshead