I’m usually a day or so late with things and the centenary of International Women’s Day is obviously no exception… A week or so  ago on assignment I photographed an extraordinary woman, Sheela, who runs a tiny tea stall that backs onto a rag-pickers’ colony.

India - New Delhi - Sheela, a widowed tea stall owner keeps a steely eye on a customer dropping a coin onto a steel plate

I can’t tell her story any better than see did.

“I came to Delhi a long time ago. I came here with my husband and he was working as a chowkidar. That was in 1981. A long time. Then it all went bad. From the beginning I stayed on this piece of land. My husband died here 21 years ago. My eldest son then became sick and he also died. That was sixteen years ago and then my youngest (son) died I think six years ago. We spent a lot of money to save them all but despite the medicines they all died. I couldn’t save any of them. I don’t know why I am still here. But I am here alone and I must survive.

At my tea stall I get up very early and serve the rag pickers who work on the dump behind me. I have had this business since the children died. I am not happy but I don’t have the means to change my life. I am alone. I am a woman. It is not easy. I don’t make so much money – tea is Rs5 a cup and I have to buy the tea and the sugar and recently all this has increased in price.

I suppose Delhi’s a good a place as another: there’s work, you can survive. I can’t think about the future can I? It’s a waste of time <laughs>.

I have to be happy in the present.”

It’s amazing what you find in the ‘papers these days. I opened the Grauniad this morning and found a cover feature on The Word.

The Word was a ground breaking (in terms of taste and errr… editorial judgement) British ‘yoof’ television show that showcased music and heralded the ‘reality’ concept that you find everywhere on television nowadays.

I was assigned by the Times Magazine to do a feature about the show in the mid-nineties. I stumbled upon the trannies (or most of them) a couple of years ago and managed to scan perhaps a dozen. I put them onto my archive. And them forgot about them. Until this morning. Now, I suppose the hard working busy picture desk on G2 could have searched for them but instead, they simply ran an entire feature with screengrabs…

Here’s a bit of a selection…

UK - London - Terry Christian in rehearsals for the cult British Television show, "The Word"

UK - London - A stage hand raises signage before transmission of the cult British TV show, "The Word"

UK - London - Members of the audience prepare to dance on the cult British television show, "The Word"

UK - London - Mark Lammar lights a cigarette in his dressing room before an edition of the cult British television show, "The Word"

UK - London - Audience members before transmission of the cult TV show "The Word"

UK - London - Mark Lammar in rehearsals for the cult British Television show, "The Word"

I spotted this chap defiantly reading his morning ‘paper in the middle of the street in Paris recently on assignment for a magazine. He’s reading La Tribune, so maybe he’s playing the markets…

France - Paris - An elderly man reads his newspaper on the street on the Rue Mouffetard.

Here’s a couple of more images – not from the edit set – that I liked from the same job.

France - Paris - Graffitti and apples on a stall in the market on the Rue Mouffetard.

France - Paris - A baker pulls croissants from the oven at the Maison Morange Patisserie on the Rue Mouffetard