Rajasthan - Houses and men

As in Vila-Matas’ foreword, one should look at these photos by Tito Dalmau (born 1948), “free from any preface or prejudice” only in this way “can we endow what we see with a personal meaning, a unique, original meaning to this collection of fleeting human gestures and mysterious, stunning architecture”.

With the images that illustrate this book, architect and photographer Tito Dalmau leads us gently through the fascinating scenario of the different forms of the inhabited landscape in Rajasthan.

The pictures are accompanied by historical circumstances and geographical notes by Maka Abraham, whose words provide us with all the data about the reality that will bring us back into this timeless world. Here, through architecture, the man knew how to tame the aridity of the landscape and succeeded in asserting his own existence and the social order. Hence the fact that the photographs in this book focus on architectural forms rather than on the handsome faces of the people who inhabit these lands.

"If there is anywhere in the world where one can anytime, everywhere, measure the power of what is regarded as ‘sacred’ to design the lives of men, then that place is India." Maka Abraham