Chronicles of lost worlds

Author William Dalrymple has been known to don many hats. With a new exhibition, the writer-historian turns photographer

Like a true Renaissance man, William Dalrymple has moved through various avatars of a travel writer, feature writer, foreign correspondent, historian, lecturer, festival organiser as well as goatherd and pigeon keeper - as he describes himself on the social media. So, between writing the text for a book on Nagaland for David Bailey, the legendary British photographer (in return for a Mick Jagger original print from the 1960's), and the text for archaeologist George Michel's next book on Hampi, he's also working on promoting his three-city photography show, which, after its current run in Goa, will travel to New Delhi and London.

According to him, the photography exhibition happened because Siddharth Dhanvant Shanghvi, the Mumbai-based writer who's a board member of Sunaparanta, the Goa Centre for Arts, saw Dalrymple's photographs on the social media when the two were in Goa. He talked Dalrymple into exhibiting them and Goa became the first site of the exhibition. He then spoke to other galleries and HarperCollins about publishing a book of the photographs. Anant Padmanabhan, CEO of HarperCollins, edited the book and Dalrymple's role involved sorting through his massive collection of images. Shanghvi says that barring two images, there were no differences in opinion between the two.

I ask Shanghvi what he saw in the photographs that made him want to exhibit them. "There was a deep, brooding quality, particularly in the landscape images, and empathy for light that had a literary quality. It left back as much as it revealed.", he says.

So, does his writing play a part in the exhibition? "Not directly, but the way the world is going, the money for writing is disappearing while there's such an emphasis on personal appearances. And this allows me to roam. I've had a restless year," Dalrymple laughs. While he roamed through Central Asia, Iran and Europe, India and his native Scotland, he took plenty of pictures with his trusted Samsung phone. His wife, Olivia, adds, "I get fed up of his camera. He's always on it, editing pictures. He finds it calming during the stress of long journeys." Dalrymple takes up the story again, "I'm influenced by Bill Brandt and Don Mccullin's photos. I've enjoyed creating black and white pictures since I was a teenager."

It's interesting that Dalrymple's inspirations are mostly photojournalists known for their clear, almost documentary styles. Mccullin, in particular, has publicly stated that he's always thought photography is not so much of an art form as a way of communicating and passing on information. Dalrymple's landscapes, however, play with perspective, form, texture and composition. They are moody and atmospheric memories of bygone magnificence. Common themes such as Mughal architecture, the ruins of Afghanistan, and the domes of Golconda run through them, while others show the chaos of Lucknow chowks, the crumbling Paigah palaces of old Hyderabad and even a journey along the Ganges looking for perfume in Kannauj. The photographs are magnificent, but not cozy or inviting.

Equally interesting is how Dalrymple's own descriptions of the landscapes are drenched with colour. He talks about the jaw-dropping journey from Kabul to Bamiyan, "The dark slopes were etched in ice, each river valley white against the black granite of range after range of folding mountains. In the centre of the Pamirs, was a clear, empty, silent landscape lined with frozen crevices filled with un-melted snow. In many ways it felt like a primeval landscape, untouched by man." The exhibition captures the grandeur of lost civilisations and cultures on the verge of extinction as it meanders between landscapes, architecture and people who are the last remnants of this forgotten world.
The exhibition of William Dalrymple's photographs can be viewed at Vadehra Art Gallery, Defence Colony, New Delhi, between March 30 and April 20