Cochin, India, is a special place. A former Portuguese colonial town, later a Dutch trading center, the city has a fascinating history. Living on the coast, naturally many people fish for a living. A few still use the old-style, black wooden boats that look like rustic versions of Venetian gondolas. I took this picture into one of them, with the blue filaments of the net and a paddle made of cocoanut wood. Coming into Cochin is always nostalgic for me because there are about 4 photographs taken near there when my grandfather’s WW I British Navy ship came here in 1918. They are the only pictures that exist of that part of his life. It makes me think of how sparsely documented one’s life was just a couple of generations ago. There are few pictures of me as well. Yet today more pictures are taken of a newborn in the first hour of its life than have been taken of me and my grandfather during our whole lives.