You’ve seen the Reels spoofing how Hollywood montages present the Wife Who Will Die In The First Half? All tousled hair, innocent devotion, wholesome sexiness? Nitesh Mohanty’s self-published 2020 photobook Nowhere / Now Here is the opposite of that. It’s a chronicle of his time as caregiver to his wife, Diya, through her battle with a brain tumour. But, like all good art, it is so much more.
It takes immense courage to display one’s vulnerability. Mohanty took thousands of images during the 12 years of his wife’s illness and eventual demise. He worked with his friend and editor Deshna Mehta who runs Studio Anugraha in Mumbai, to depict that journey honestly and formally in the book. The images are in black-and-white and at first glance, show the mundanity of everyday existence. Some frames depict Diya, in silhouette, looking out of a window; others include a bra discarded on an unkempt bed, a half-eaten pomegranate, blurred lights, a balloon stuck on a ceiling. The ordinariness of the images holds on to the grief, longing, desire, torment, uncertainty and love. And of Mohanty’s desire to hold on to the memories of his wife.
And instead of chapters, the book features disparate sections, with lines of poetry standing in for titles. So, instead of acting as a look-here-see-this guide, it lets readers pause on each page to reflect, go back and forth between sections, and articulate their own feelings.
Nowhere / Now Here came out in 2020, the year the pandemic changed us all. Mohanty’s visuals feature stillness and vulnerability. They easily stand in for humanity’s collective loss, loneliness and sense of absence. The book is small enough to rest in the palm of your hand, which creates a sense of intimacy, and highlights the fragility of holding something small and precious.
Mohanty practices across disciplines, but has focused on photography and writing. He grew up in the industrial town of Rourkela in Odisha, where he devoured the books at his local library; and the hill station Lonavala in Maharashtra, where he learnt to tune into nature. He’s studied at both, the JJ School of Art in Mumbai, and the National Institute of Design in Ahmedabad – both prestigious schools that have polished his views while letting him stay creative and original.
It comes across plainly in Nowhere / Now Here. The photobook format uses images and minimal text to drive the storytelling. The sequence in which the pictures appear (or how you choose to view them) affects how you follow Mohanty’s tale. It’s not hefty and sumptuous like a coffee-table book. It’s not a panel-led storyboard, with speech bubbles, like a graphic novel. The message and medium are uniquely set to deliver a slower, more intimate engagement.
Mohanty explains the charm of this medium via a quote from American writer Susan Sontag: “To take a photograph is to participate in another person’s mortality, vulnerability and mutability.” Thumb though his book, or sit with it for an evening, or return to it over and over though the weekend. The images, so obviously of Diya and her absence, will turn out to mean something else entirely – something that speaks expressly to you, and you alone. And you’ll have no idea how you got there.
ARTIST BIO: Vasundhara Prakash is an artist from New Delhi whose digital collages draw from art, advertising, Bollywood and experiential design
From HT Brunch, April 18, 2026
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