Desert Eves: An Indian Paradise

by Hans W. Silvester, Catherine Clément

In the harsh Thar desert of Rajasthan State in Northwest India, the famed photographer Hans Silvester found his paradise. Not far from the birthplace of Mahatma Gandhi, who assumed the ways of the poor out of solidarity, the women of the desert live a hard life, without electricity, without running water, without doctors.

With only the simplest means, they keep their homes scrupulously clean and decorate them with wonderful designs. With the barest of resources, they clothe themselves so richly that their costumes have been copied by fashionable women in the West. The women sing while working in the fields or picking over grains, and while spinning thread in their tiny courtyards. Their songs, dating back centuries, invoke ancient gods and goddesses.

The intensity of this simple life captured by Hans Sylvester's lens is matched by Catherine Clement's poetic and provocative text, a musing meditation on this region of India and its inhabitants - especially its women, the Eves of the desert

227 pages, Hardcover

First published August 1, 2001

Reviews

[Jeanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is mostly a fascinating coffee table book of Indian women. It shows how, in the midst of sand and dirt, these women have created a life of beauty. (We got this book during our Magic Carpet school year, and we were all fascinated by it.)