Tell us about the rigour that went into the selection.
The brief from the editor, Anindita Ghose was fairly detailed. The photos in The Only City (HarperCollins India) had to avoid poverty porn and anything that is patronising of the subaltern; it had to have contemporary relevance, and the selection had to be mindful that more stories feature characters closer to the reading audience i.e. educated, at least, middle-class. 

It was a challenge because I had never done photographs to accompany fiction. I began by reading the stories, even those that were still works-in-progress. It offered broad contours and a general sense of the ideas that might work from my photo archives, and what would require fresh shoots. I remember most of the photographs I’ve shot through the year. This trait proved useful while working on this project. Though the contexts for which they were originally shot may have been different, for the book, it was about finding newer ways of making them relevant in a different context.