Puri, Autumn

Stone walls and clustered rooftops in Puri, slate-blue already gathering in the lanes as the afternoon draws back.

A deep quiet settles over this place, as if it’s held by the afternoon. You can feel the texture in the foreground—the paint is thick and broken on those stone walls. Then it softens, washing over the clustered rooftops and smoothing out completely as the hills recede into the sky. All that surface warmth comes from the umbers and golds, but it’s the slate blue in the shadows that gives everything such depth. The light is so gentle. It just spills over the rooftops, pooling softly in the lanes between them without any harshness. Autumn sits over the whole scene, holding the hour before the day turns.