WANDERLUST

Wanderlust emerged from Rohit Chawla’s travels through Kutch, Gujarat, in 2005. Drawn to the Rabari community—their nomadic history, striking dress and instinctive sense of style—Chawla approached them not as ethnographic subjects but as individuals. Instead of placing the sitters within picturesque desert landscapes or domestic settings, he stripped the portraits of visual excess and concentrated on presence, gesture, clothing and gaze. The men appear in austere white silhouettes, sometimes accompanied only by a staff or animal, while the women bring a contrasting richness through embroidered garments, jewellery, mirrors, bangles and tattoos. Chawla’s fashion and advertising background informed the discipline of the images, yet the series consciously rejects manufactured glamour. Subjects were photographed with a directness that gives the portraits both stillness and intensity. Made more than two decades ago, Wanderlust has acquired additional significance as traditional Rabari livelihoods and forms of dress undergo rapid change. The series was subsequently presented internationally, including a 21-photograph exhibition at Namaste France in Paris in 2023, and returned to New Delhi in 2025 at Bikaner House.