Travelling was the only constant contemporary photographer Rohit Chawla knew until he found himself confined to Goa during the lockdown imposed to check the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. Stray dogs left to fend for themselves followed him on a deserted Ashwem beach as tourists left when Chawla began walking 20 kilometres daily to stay fit. Their plight broke Chawal’s heart. He began taking pictures of the dogs that had been completely forgotten as he tried to form a frame around his vulnerability, disparate thoughts, and inability to articulate them even to himself.
“Thus these images are the quietest, most introspective work I have ever done,” said Chawla at a fortnight-long exhibition titled “Rain Dogs” of his photographs that began on Wednesday at Goa’s Aguada Heritage Complex.
Chawla, an acclaimed photographer known for his unconventional portraits, took about 10,000 photographs over three years of dogs on Goa’s beaches of which he selected about 100 for the exhibition. He said stray dogs followed him during the pandemic hoping perhaps he was manna from heaven for they had been left with nothing. “...the tourists had fled, the beaches were no longer a moveable feast of leftovers. It broke my heart to see them so emaciated, eyes large and dead with hunger,” Chawla said.
Chawla said in all scrambling for food those days, some hoarding away more than they needed, the homeless and helpless dogs had been completely forgotten.He said the exhibition was also about changing some people’s perceptions about indie dogs. “We as a country have the largest number of street/stray dogs in the world. There are about 70,000 on the beaches of Goa.”
He said the exhibition is going to go to different cities across the country and he hopes it sensitises people to rescue these dogs. “If we did not have dogs in our life, probably anything in my life would not have worked out—neither my jobs nor my marriage... I owe these dogs my whole life,” he said.
{{/usCountry}}He said the exhibition is going to go to different cities across the country and he hopes it sensitises people to rescue these dogs. “If we did not have dogs in our life, probably anything in my life would not have worked out—neither my jobs nor my marriage... I owe these dogs my whole life,” he said.
{{/usCountry}}Congress leader Shashi Tharoor praised Chawla’s exhibition saying the stunning and moving photographs of dogs in Goa during Covid-19 are a reminder that dogs are indeed poems with paws. “...those paws can leave their imprint on the hardest human heart.”
Historian William Dalrymple said the Covid lockdown produced many extraordinary passion projects by artists and writers around the world. He added that none will provide more pleasure than Chawla’s wonderful new look at Goa during the pandemic and the relationship between man and dog on the beaches.
The exhibition will also be held at Gurugram’s Museo Camera Centre for the Photographic Arts from January 26 apart from other cities. A coffee table book titled “Rain Dogs” (HarperCollins) featuring Chawla’s photographs is set to be launched at the Jaipur Literature Festival in February.