Pushkar Unveiled was photographed during a week-long visit to the small desert town of Pushkar in Rajasthan. Like many photographers before me, I was drawn there by the annual Camel Fair, when pilgrims, traders, tourists and thousands of animals gather in one place. Beyond the fair, Pushkar is one of India's oldest pilgrimage towns and home to the country's only temple dedicated to Lord Brahma. Throughout the year, pilgrims come to bathe in its sacred lake, believing its waters cleanse them of their sins.

I wandered through its ghats, bazaars and the vast desert mela grounds, observing the rhythm of daily life as it unfolded around me. Veiled women, wandering livestock, pilgrims, holy men and traders moved through the same streets, each becoming part of a landscape where faith, commerce and tradition existed side by side.

Looking back nearly two decades later, I see Pushkar Unveiled as one of the first bodies of work in which I began to understand that photography was less about recording a place than learning how to look. reflecting a period when I was still discovering photography as a way of seeing.

However, Pushkar revealed a world that felt suspended between the past and the present. While change had begun to reach the town, many customs and ways of life endured, offering glimpses of traditions that had been preserved across generations. Spending time on the desert plains, I couldn't help wondering about the time when we lived a nomadic existence which we have long given up. It offered you a glimpse when man and beast still depended on each other for survival.