A rare and evocative photographic portrait of India’s abandoned mansions and desert towns.

It may seem strange that India, the second most populated country on earth, should be so rich in deserted buildings. Yet ninety percent of the mansions of Shekhawati are abandoned, secured at best by the presence of a caretaker.

Abandonment is a recurring theme in photographer Kip Scott’s work, whether the disused factories of the West or the redundant institutions of Europe. In Shekhawati one feels a greater urgency to capture and preserve the past for fear it may disappear.

Fading frescoes adorning walls capture the spirit and humour of artists and original owners, and the sense of a time of great wealth when the arts were patronised. The ghosts of the past are never far away even in images of silence, of erosion and decay. For the past is never the past.