Author(s): Kip Scott

Photography

A rare and evocative photographic portrait of India, and specifically Shekhawati's 'abandoned' mansions, and its desert towns. This exquisitely produced book features a selection of Scott's work made throughout the region of Shekhawati in Rajasthan, India. Here we glimpse courtyards, living spaces, frescoes, vast interiors, both lovingly restored and bordering on ruin. Scott's images capture the complex nature of change, of sublime beauty and decay, mirroring an India that will seduce the reader. Praise for Abandoned India: Then there is the magic of Kip Scott's book: the evocative, marvellously vivid images of mansions, monuments, and frescoes of Shekhawati. The treasures of my own town of Mahansar are glimpsed in the images of the Poddar Golden Haveli, which has the finest murals of Shekhawati in gold leaf and glittering Belgian mirror work, and the crystal chandeliers of and huge Murano and Belgian cut glasses of the Tolaram Ka Kamra. Scott's book arrives at a an opportune moment when so many of Shekhawati's glorious but often abandoned mansions face the danger of decay or the possibility of preservation and the connection of the past to the future. -Lal Singh Shekhawat