Mahatma Gandhi’s legacy is acclaimed around the world. His demands for peaceful action, equality, sustainability, and religious freedom are often quoted. But when photographer Rena Effendi was assigned to capture his abiding impact in modern-day India for the July 2015 issue of National Geographic, she needed to go beyond the history books and into the streets. Where is Gandhi’s legacy being lived out? Who continues to carry out his principles? She set out on a journey to document these traces of Gandhi.

I spoke with her picture editor, Kim Hubbard, about what it was like to work on the inspiring story of a world-changing legacy coupled with the challenge of visualizing the past and present in photographs.

[Hear Effendi reveal