Kolkata (Calcutta) is the capital of West Bengal, India, home to over 14 million Calcuttans. Every breath one takes in this heaving city brings this fact to life: it’s crowded, massive, filthy and generally an awkward place to be. Yet, it’s all of these factors coming together that makes Kolkata such an interesting place to live.

I decided to live in Kolkata for a month, in the hope of assimilating the Calcuttan way of life whilst documenting the people of this city living their lives.

Seemingly everything happens on the streets of this crazed city: Want to score some weed? Dealers are all over the city, on the main streets to shady dark ally’s. Need a legal document typed? There’s a district full of gentlemen busily typing away. Need to use a toilet? EVERY STREET IS A TOILET. If you need it, it will be in the streets.

My aim was to capture the essence of Kolkata: the people, the inequality, the commerce and the abnormality. This lead me to spend most of my days and nights traversing my way through this colossal city in a state of perpetual perplexity.

Calcutta left me with so many impressions: some positive, some negative, most of them confused. In other words, it’s a place to experience.

James Knox is a documentary photographer and EIC of Flint.