Shots from desert skies

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While travelling to the interiors of a tiny hamlet in Jodhpur, photographer Rajesh Bedi was welcomed into a small dwelling by the male resident. After chatting with him for sometime, Bedi was ready to do what he is best at — taking a few candid clicks.

And his subject was the man’s wife, Kiran Bishnoi, a simple village woman who was breast-feeding her daughter. However, soon Bedi saw a strange sight. A fawn was hovering around Kiran restlessly when she was busy feeding and finally Kiran allowed the fawn to suckle from her free nipple. “Inspite of being a thorough professional, I was initially shy to take a picture of this exquisite scene. But it proved too striking for me to restrain myself and I clicked. The motherly love showered upon the wild animal was so moving; I have never such harmony between man and nature,” recollects Bedi. The image forms the back cover of Rajesh Bedi’s latest coffee-table book, Rajasthan Under the Desert Sky, a collection of about 100 photographs showing interesting facets of the state.
“Almost three decades back, I began my journey of capturing the state of Rajasthan. Just like most people, I had imagined I would highlight the royal splendour and focus on Maharajas in regal turbans, queens in ancient jewellery, giant palaces and various ceremonies. But over the last five years, a different perspective of Rajasthan began to take centre-stage on interacting with local communities, tribes and discovering unexplored places,” shares Bedi.
The text of the book has been written by Gillian Wright, wife of ex-BBC bureau chief Mark Tully and a close family friend. “I would love to have written the text as well but I was exhausted after selection of the pictures. So I requested Gillian to write the text and she agreed readily,” smiles Bedi.
The book for him has been a labour of love spread over several years. The ace lensman accompanied the local communities as they went about their life — catching their cattle grazing, travelling to spectacular fairs, attending religious functions to capture the vibrant character of the people.
Using hot air balloons, microlite and cameras mounted on high-flying kites, he has experimented with photography to present the vastness of Rajasthan from a fresh perspective. “In one of my pictures you will see a herd of sheep grazing peacefully and beautiful blue smoke in the background. The effect is surreal. It is imperative to choose your subjects intelligently else people get bored very easily,” he puts forth.
The photographer climbed the Aravallis to discover deserted forts and primitive rock shelters that are inhabited to this day. The symmetry and ornate splendour of ancient step wells and mandana paintings by women folk mesmerised him and are all beautifully captured in his works. “For all the aerial shots that I took, I had a 14 member crew including a superb pilot and other fellow photographers accompanying me. While many shots are aerial, others are taken from the ground. It is important to know how a certain subject will appear in the way it is shot,” suggests Bedi.
Although Bedi has often been labelled a wildlife photographer, he loves exploring cities and its people with his lens. “In our country, we are quick to categorise and label people. I love capturing wildlife, but I have also covered unexplored terrains, interesting people based in places like Sikkim, Ladakh and Banaras. I have even covered ascetics in my compilation Sadhus — The Holy Men. However, I would be returning to wildlife with my next book that would focus on Indian elephants, the most beautiful creatures I have ever seen,” signs off Bedi.