New Delhi, Feb. 7 -- Anuja Dasgupta, 28, was born in Patna, but has spent the last few years immersed in Ladakh, far from the madding crowd, perfecting an art form she calls "anthotypes". Leaves, flowers, fruits, berries, air, water, sunlight, birds and animals are the raw materials of her work and active collaborators, too. Dasgupta describes the outcome of these adventures as "cameraless photography", where each piece emerges as a thing of beauty, born on the cusp of uncertainty, entirely subject to the whims of nature and the elements.

Underneath the delicate dance of colours in these abstract forms, there is an engaged political sensibility. Dasgupta's dialogue with colonial depictions of Ladakh, especially with the work of archaeolo...