Monthly Photos　Jan 2023

Photos taken by ILCAA staff and associates are posted here once a month; most of them are taken during their field research in Asia and Africa.

(The copyright belongs to the photographers.)

Photographing the Taj Mahal

At 4:50 p.m. on September 8, 2022, I was among a crowd of people who were fanatically stretching their arms upward to capture a splendid view in front of them by using their smartphones. At that time, Agra had just begun to see an ebb in COVID-19 cases. The scene of the Taj Mahal bathed in the sunset glow was immediately reproduced in their vertically oriented screens; it reached their families and friends much more quickly than its postcard sent by airmail. The majestic mausoleum is a resisting place of the beloved empress of Shah Jahan, the fifth emperor of the Mughal Empire (r. 1628–58), and the emperor himself.

September 8, 2022
The Taj Mahal Complex (Agra)
Photograph by Yui KANDA