Introduction:

The photographs in this volume go to the heart of an important paradox: that a small, remote and isolated desert town like Pushkar can at the same time be sensual, inspiring and inviting. Perhaps it is because in Pushkar light and color seem to collide everywhere. And, like in all of India, cultures bump into each other at almost every intersection. Also, however, the compelling nature of these images illustrate a few of photography’s basic truths. First, at its core photography is like an enchanted garden where one is continually meeting the unexpected and wonderful. Second, photographs help us obliterate boundaries. They make us realize the lines on maps that divide peoples are only lines that can be unimagined. Yes, the world speaks in many tongues but it sees in only one.

The ten photographers whose work has been collected in this little volume have captured moments that refuse to be ordinary with stunning clarity, simplicity and unprecedented frankness.

Introduction:

They keep the traditional faith that powerful pictures can convey information and that art is most useful when it serves communication. These ten friends, all with huge visual appetites, traveled to Pushkar the very same way—humbly, gratefully, fearlessly, patiently and expectantly. They treated the camel fair like a surprise package to be opened and untied. Although from varying backgrounds, they all knew that art flourishes when there is a sense of adventure.

The photographs displayed in the following pages are not organized in the style of a conventional travel diary—first day of the fair to the last. As travel writer Pico Iyer states: “The destination of any journey is not, after all, the last item on the agenda but rather some understanding, however simple or provisional, of what one has seen.” The pictures therefore are arranged in such a way that reflect the individual mental and visual itineraries of the photographers as they met the gurus, gods and camels of Pushkar. xxxxx xxxxxxxxx~ Maestro