For nearly two decades, Gauri Gill has investigated the interplay between obscurity and power through her images of daily life in rural India. Gill’s long-standing engagement with marginalized communities—including Jogi nomads, Muslim migrants and Bishnoi peasants began in 1999 with her ongoing body of work Notes from the Desert. In this archive of images, which comprises thousands of gelatin silver photographs, Gill presents intimate snapshots of daily life in Western Rajasthan, a region near the border of Pakistan, through her candid style of photography. Gill often revisits the same subjects and places over extended periods of time, developing close relationships with the individuals and families she interacts with in a continuous process of documentation.

Gill’s photographs unearth acts of resilience by honoring her subjects in vernacular moments and moving the spotlight away from the media’s one-dimensional portrayal of oppression, the struggle for education, healthcare and land issues faced by India’s India’s rural and indigenous communities. According to Gill, “the universal is often achieved by looking at the local or the quotidian, things that are familiar and therefore not exotic, but never ordinary.”

Notes from the Desert encompasses several sub-series, including Balika Mela, Birth Series, Jannat, Ruined Rainbow, The Mark on the Wall, and Traces, all of which explore the spaces of rural life.