/* global React, ChamberChrome */ function About({ onBack }) { const photos = window.DARSHAN || []; const portrait = photos[2]; // children at the river — feels like the author's view const second = photos[14]; // Ahmedabad dusk const third = photos[19]; // Bundi farmer return (
— the witness behind the lens —

राहुल मालविया Rahul Malviya

photographer · street, travel, documentary, the quiet detail of nature.

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I. How I began.

I started with a Fujifilm X-T200, five years ago, mostly to teach myself patience. The camera was a way of not looking away. I had been a person who looked away — at strangers, at the slow afternoons, at the small dignities of the city — and the camera became a polite excuse to stop.

Five years later, the camera and I no longer argue. It has taught me that there is no such thing as an ordinary moment; there is only a moment, and the attention you bring to it.

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II. What I work in.

Street, travel, and documentary photography. I am drawn most often to the small detail in nature — the single star before the city switches on, the cloud-strata that have been arranging themselves all afternoon for a one-minute dusk.

I have, in five years, walked nine cities of bhārat in this way. Pushkar, Varanasi, Jaisalmer, Udaipur, Indore, Bhopal, Bundi, Hampi, Wayanad. And, once, Bagan in Burma — a city that taught me a different patience.

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III. Why this site.

This site is a souvenir — not for me, for the world. The photographs are so few. They cannot judge me, and they cannot represent the country. They are only an organised offering: a small temple of mine, opened.

If a single frame slows you down for a moment longer than you had intended; if a single line of caption stays with you on the train home — the archive will have done its small work.

a small creed,

  1. i. kneel when the moment is private.
  2. ii. walk the same lane three times if it allows you.
  3. iii. do not ask the strangers to smile.
  4. iv. thank them with your eyes, not your money.
  5. v. the photograph is the receipt, not the journey.

किट · what I carry.

BodyFujifilm X-T200
GlassXF 23mm f/2 · XF 56mm f/1.2
NotebookMuji A6, plain
PenPilot Hi-Tec C, 0.4
Footwearopen sandals · bare feet, when permitted
Patiencefive years and counting
); } window.About = About;