What a difference a day makes: 'After my six months in India I sold everything to return there'

Photographer Jo Kemp first set foot in India, aged just 20. More than 4,000 miles from her Shropshire home, she knew her life had changed forever. She tells Helen O’Callaghan what exactly it was about India that mattered so much for her — both spiritually and as an artist

Photographer Jo Kemp first set foot in India, aged just 20.

I grew up in Bradford, which is strongly multicultural. I was always going to the Bombay Stores, feeling it to be the most colourful store in the world — all the saris, bangles. 

In Bradford, we had the best curry houses in England. It was natural for me then to embrace the food, the colours, to be intrigued by India.