Farther back:
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While I was photographing the steering wheel of the second truck (the last photo I was planning to take anyway) the driver asked what I was doing. Hema spoke with him in Marathi and said I was only taking photos of the painting and art. So he smiled. He was afraid he was going to get in trouble for parking illegally, she guessed later when she explained it to me.
"With close to 8.5 million trucks plying on Indian roads, the trucking industry is India’s backbone when it comes to the supply of essential services. Indian trucks are also known for another thing — their decked up appearance! Truck drivers in India love getting their trucks decorated using vivid art and text. The body of the truck becomes a mode of expression, not only for them but for many truck artists in the country as well. VICE meets Nafees Ahmad Khan, a truck artist from Indore, a city in the central state of India, Madhya Pradesh. We also meet truck drivers stationed at Nafees’s workshop to understand why they get their trucks custom painted and what the iconography means for them."
The video shows some of the artists at work.