Forms of Faith

The book contains images of landscapes and edifices,of man and nature,and they capture moments of faith and divine ecstasy. His camera has swept the length and breadth of the country — from the crowded temples of Vrindavan to the vast expanse of the monasteries of Ladakh,from the solitude of a single cross on a lone beach,to the buzzing kitchen-temple of Bhubaneshwar. Despite its clichés,the book has much to offer to the armchair traveller and even for the resident Indian who may claim to have seen it all.

Pasricha says he is open to critiques of his work. “Even a photographer of the rank of Raghu Rai reacts to my images with conflict. First he says ‘wow’,but he follows that with a ‘but you can’t do this!’ I am not a photojournalist and I don’t see why one shouldn’t explore different kinds of photography,” smiles Pasricha,who shot for this book over a period of seven years. The bulk of the work was done in the last three years though. The panorama is created by stitching images together to create a very wide view,with a variety of cameras,ranging from the Nikon SLR to a simple point and click digital camera. “It doesn’t matter what camera you use. I can shoot with a cool-pix camera and create the image later,” he says.

There are moments when he slips out of type and shocks you with an image that despite its beauty,holds you to a compelling message. For instance,his photograph of a straw dummy on a palatial building in Tarangambadi,Tamil Nadu,is a juxtaposition of two faiths in one frame. The Hindu demon mask wards off the evil eye but in the background,the 17th century red fort built by a Danish merchant is a reminder of our colonial past.