Art, Fujifilm X-T2, Poetry
by Patrick Jennings

Precious

Tona on the Ganga, Rishikesh, Uttarakhand, India

Found a little gem
Looked it up when I got home
Found a precious stone

Tona on the Ganga
Rishikesh
Uttarakhand, India

Taken during  travels, 2017

Tona is the pseudonym of an anonymous street artist from Hamburg. He started to paint graffiti in 1999 and then started cutting stencils in 2002. Addicted to traveling, the artist traveled several times to Asia where he has left his mark across the countries with his unique street art. Whether you are in India, Nepal, Thailand, Laos, Japan or Indonesia, you will have a good chance to spot stencils of happy children peeking out from street corners, looking at you from walls, electric boxes or doors and generally being playful.

~Urbaneez

Walking my usual route back to the hostel along the Ganges River in Rishikesh I noticed this striking piece of street art. Hmmm. Tona? Who’s that? Took some photos and figured I’d look him up later.

Fast forward to 2024 and I’m rooting through the photo library for unedited images, hoping for inspiration, and I find them again. I pick a closeup of just the metal door and its frame. A good way into processing it before I notice the Tona signature and remember that long ago promise to self. A bit of google later and, oh!

Turns out I found a precious gem. 🙂  I switched to a wider photograph which includes the Ganges in the background along with some Rishikesh architecture. This one took a lot more work to edit, but worth the effort to polish a precious gem.

For more of Tona’s work, check out his Instagram and Facebook. But it looks like there is no photo for this one at either site.