A New View from the Top

Bedi recounts stories of the shoots in Rajasthan — waiting four days for the right wind conditions so that he could shoot from a hot-air balloon,or hitching his camera to a kite,a popular mode of photography in Europe. “While I was photographing the vast expanse of the Chambal river from a hot-air balloon,the wind was not blowing and so the balloon would not move. The problem I faced was that I could not steer the balloon in the direction I wanted to shoot and had

to wait for several hours for the balloon to move,” he says. Another photograph — an aerial view of cattle grazing in the desert — took him more than three days as clouds covered the sun for most of the day.

It took four years to capture the 47 images that are on display. Bedi is particularly fond of a photograph of a man drawing water from a well and pouring it into a rubber container placed on his donkey,in the middle of the desert,with the help of his wife who holds on tightly to a rope. “If you look at the photograph closely,you will notice that there are no cable wires or electric cables anywhere. This place has been untouched by modernisation,” says Bedi. After climbing the Aravallis,Bedi managed to shoot some primitive rock shelters,a far cry from the grand monuments that Rajasthan Tourism has made famous.

Another day,he went to a humble Bishnoi household and noticed a fawn playing with a woman. Soon,she bent down and began to suckle her child and the fawn together. Bedi began to shoot and the photograph is among the most powerful in

the exhibition.

The photographer feels that images play an important role in documenting the changing history of our country,especially rural places that are fast being modernised. “I worry that these places will soon fall victims to modernisation and simple methods of living will be lost,” he says.

The exhibition is on at India Habitat Centre,till August 13. Contact: 24682001