Abandoned India: The Mansions of Shekhawati

$50.00

ISBN: 978-0-9943958-6-3 Format: Hardback with jacket 248mmx305mm Rights: World Release / Publication Date: 01 /03 /2016
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Description

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.

Kip Scott is a Melbourne-based photographer and video artist. He is a graduate of RMIT’s Bachelor of Arts (Photography). His artistic investigations cover urban exploration, architecture and video and has been awarded the San Pellegrino Cafe Society Photography in 2013 and Dockland Summer Shorts Video Prize in 2015.He has exhibited at Field 36 Gallery, 45 Downstairs, Fox Gallery, and the Roslyn Smorgon Gallery at Footscray Community Arts Centre. He was commissioned by the City of Maribyrnong to photograph the Melbourne suburb of Footscray in 2016. The series Abandoned India from his solo exhibition was accompanied by the publication of a photographic book of the same name (Transit Lounge 2016). His other publications comprise F5: Footscray in transition (2016), Chittagong Steel (2018), Lost and Found: the mansions of Bengal and Bangladesh (2019). His work has been further published in Owl Farm, Bharat Times, India Link and Photo Dust.

www.kipscottphoto.com
@kipscott