TLDR: This is not a coffee table book on India with the snake charmers, shikaras and doe eyed children.
This is really a book for advanced photographers, those with an interest in understanding India beyond its exotic appeal, or students of art history and composition in art. Casual browsers will simply fail to spot the cohesive strains or the artistic merit in most of these pictures.
The only text in the book, other than the foreword, acknowledgement & index, is three paragraphs by John Baldessari. I cannot but highlight the importance of the latter, because it describes how Raghubir Singh used the Ambassador car as a framing device, how it sometimes obscures what is important, thereby elevating what is instead visible.
The Ambassador was the dominant car on Indian roads in the 60's and 70's. In the 80's, though still ubiquitous on the roads, it was slowly ceding ground to newer Japanese models. It was largely overtaken in the 90's, and except for government fleets and taxis, vanquished in the oughties.
The book contains pictures from 1977-1997.
These pictures capture facets of reality, not some fascination with the "exotic other" often seen in photo books about India. Here in this book is India in all its postcolonial vivacity, pride, chaos, struggle and duality.
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