Waswo X. Waswo s Men of Rajasthan has by now become a bit of a cult classic, and Serindia Contemporary is proud to release this deluxe and expanded hardcover edition. Based on the original paperback edition published in conjunction with an eponymous exhibition at Serindia Gallery, Bangkok, in January of 2011, this updated volume includes new photographs from both the Studio in Rajasthan series and also the series New Myths. Waswo playfully examines the genres of both the ethnographic photograph-as-document that is linked to the colonial era, as well as the fantasy-inspired make-believe that has emanated from traditional Indian portrait studios. Using the dual attributes of each fact and fiction Waswo concocts an inspired mix of homage and critique. The resultant images straddle a line between the retro and the contemporary that resist easy efforts to classify them. They can cause a viewer to rethink what he initially perceives, question the dialogue set up between photographer and model, and eventually challenge the viewer's own preconceptions. The photographs in this book are selections from a much larger body of work that the artist broadly refers to as A Studio in Rajasthan.
