This much-awaited book beautifully exceeds the straight-forward documentary intent that first seeded its beginnings in 2011. With the interspersing of anecdotes and recollections of childhood curiosities among its photographs, it brings the reader to the crossroads of many locations. Sharma is a self-aware outsider-observer who constantly reflects on his learnings and un-learnings, during the course of his meetings with the Raute. It is interesting that the book is being published over two years after the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic – time long enough for some of us to acquire new understandings of ideas of distance, temporariness, separation and free movement. Maybe that is why the space that Sharma draws out between himself and his subjects makes me appreciate these photographs, made during a time long gone by, with renewed eyes.
Living in the Mist