From Desert to Mountain

India’s great desert is in the Northern State of Rajasthan. It is renowned for cities, unique in character and splendour, as well as very traditional villages where the way of life has not changed for hundreds of years.

Nestled against the border with Pakistan, Jaisalmer, ‘The Golden City’, stands on a ridge of yellow stand-stone, from which emerges a very ornate palace, surrounded by beautiful havelis and secluded Jain temples, all constructed from the same golden stone. Jodhpur is ‘The Blue city’ reflecting the favoured colour of a Brahmin house, whilst Jaipur is known as ‘The Pink City’ dating from Edward, Prince of Wales’s visit in 1876 where the city was painted pink to welcome him. Udaipur, set amongst the Aravalli Hills is renowned for its monsoon lake, the lake palaces and for romance, whilst Pushkar, draws pilgrims, traders and tourists alike to its holy waters, and annual camel fair. Moving West from Jaipur brings one to Agra, once the capital of the Mughal Empire. The Taj Mahal is the city’s most famous attraction, and needs no introduction, but the Tomb of Itimad-ud-Daulah on the opposite bank of the Yamuna, the abandoned city of Fatepur Sikri to the West and the little-visited mausoleum of Akbar, the greatest of the Mughals, also stun.

North of Delhi, one enters Punjab, the land of the Sikhs. Home to the Golden Temple, Amritsar also sits just 20 miles from Lahore in Pakistan and the border at Wagah hosts a spectacular melodrama known as ‘Beating the Retreat’ every evening.

From Punjab, the land of five rivers, the land begins to rise into India’s Himalaya Mountains, crowned by Kashmir, one of India’s most romantic regions although troubled by religious tensions and a disputed border with Pakistan since the days of Partition.

These photographs were taken between November 2008 and July 2010.