Calcutta is a dramatic, tumultuous city. This capital of West Bengal still shows the high temper that often marked its turbulent history. Toshi Atsuumi found in Calcutta something he looks for: the survival of nature in the swirl of humanity. Calcutta was not, however, Atsuumi's introduction to a world beyond Japan.
He came to it for specific reasons after he had made several overseas trips, when he was a student and later on during his summer holidays when he was working.
Atsuumi was born in 1945 in Fukushima Prefecture. "My father was a primary school teacher, and my home was in the countryside with mountains all around," he said. "I loved those natural surroundings, but I wanted to go abroad. I wanted to see the world."