An Author

A chance visit to Mandu opened up an extremely new world for me which did not exist before. I was struck by the grandeur of the architecture, but the setting of the palaces, forts and the pavilions was breathtaking. I saw them not as pieces of stone having a definite form but saw them in the natural environment. Moreover, the stories narrated by the guide made the history come alive.

This journey went further when I was shooting Champaner. My ideas and my angles tried to capture the architecture not only in its natural environment but in their cultural context. Being a landscape photographer I began to call these shots “cultural landscapes”. Some pictures were in colour while some in black and white. Somehow the entire impact was appreciated by people who came for the exhibition. And it was the reactions, comments and outright suggestions – “why don’t would write a book?” that led to my first book on Champaner. My second book was on Dholavira.

It may seem strange that I did not put up an exhibition of Dholavira. I found that the making of the coffee table book was perhaps a more appropriate medium to share my cultural landscapes as well as history.