Dog Trainer, Old Delhi, India, 1979
(catalog number 207X-001-009)

IN 1979, Alice George at Geo Magazine sent me to photograph street performers in India.

Street performing in India is a tradition passed on from generation to generation. If you are a snake charmer, your father, grandfather, and great‑grandfather were all snake charmers, and your son will be one too. Indian street performers are like a tiny one‑family circus act. The children learn the family trade from a very early age. Most likely, if there is an animal in the act‑a monkey, snake, or even a bear‑the animal will live with the family, in or around the tent. In fact, the animal becomes a part of the family. They are very well treated because the families depend on them for their livelihood.

One day in New Delhi, I met a young man who had a beautifully decorated fortune‑telling cow. A crowd gathered around the trainer as he shouted, "Have your fortune told by this cow!" He would ask his cow, "Who will find a great fortune? Who will marry a wealthy man?" and so on. The cow would spin around and stop in front of some lucky person.

I asked the man with the cow if I could come to his house. He gave me detailed directions. He lived in a small cottage on top of a big hill in Old Delhi. As soon as I arrived at his house, his father presented himself to me. After all, he was the head of the family. He had heard from his son that a photographer from America was coming to visit, and he was very excited‑so excited that he took over. The father trained dogs, not cows, and he loved showing off. One of the tricks was for his dogs to beg with cigarettes in their jaws. As I was photographing the dogs, his son sadly walked down the hill with his cow to go back to the streets to work and make money.