Rain Dogs

Rain Dogs began during the pandemic, when Rohit Chawla found himself confined to Goa and walking its unusually deserted beaches. With tourists gone, the stray dogs that ordinarily depended on visitors for food and companionship had been largely forgotten. As they began following him along the beaches, Chawla started photographing them, initially as an instinctive and intensely personal response to isolation. Over three years, he made nearly 10,000 photographs, repeatedly returning to the same beaches and locations, often waiting for hours in the rain for a particular moment to emerge. The resulting images are among Chawla’s quietest and most introspective works. Set against Goa’s monsoon skies, vast seas and empty landscapes, the dogs become both subjects and metaphors—embodying vulnerability, independence, abandonment, resilience and the need for companionship. What began as a private photographic ritual eventually developed into Rain Dogs, an exhibition and a book published by HarperCollins India, accompanied by contributions from around thirty writers. The project also carries an animal-welfare purpose, with proceeds associated with the book and exhibitions supporting registered animal charities in India.