In the world of contemporary Indian photography, Sudhir Kasliwal is perhaps the most eloquent emissary of the Rajasthan people. Internationally renowned for its majestic forts and palaces, Rajasthan has attracted many a photographer eager to capture there relics of a bygone era of pomp and splendour. Sudhir’s photographs are different.

People oriented, they take the viewer away from the musty past reflected in these inanimate architectural remains to a throbbing present, choosing images from life as it is lived in rural Rajasthan. Sudhir’s Rajasthan is the Rajasthan of the common folk, and the concerns that move them – a village fair, a woman baking her daily bread, a cow girl lilting homeward. In more senses than one Sudhir breaks away from stereotypes: if there is no enthusiasm to show the glory, there is not attempt to cash in on images of poverty and squalor either.

There is neither nostalgia nor undiluted melancholia. Says Sudhir “My effort is to capture things as they are, may be with a positive touch. Happiness is an attitude of mind and is not necessarily related to one’s material circumstances. People can be happy and they are happy in our country and I want to show the outside world just that”.