In 2021, while everyone was shutting their doors to the outside world in a hope to escape the pandemic, the renowned photographer Rohit Chawla sought refuge under the monsoon skies of Goa. Except for a few stray dogs, the beaches were deserted. Rohit had been photographing people for forty years and travelling was the only constant he knew. This experience of being completely alone was a new sensation altogether. For as far as he could see, there were only the vast empty beaches, with not a soul in sight, and the lapping sea waves. And the dogs. As he walked along the beach, the stray dogs followed him, hoping perhaps for food, or even human company - the tourists had all fled, and the beaches were no longer a moveable feast of leftovers. The dogs had been largely forgotten. He began to photograph them, finding in them a mirror, a frame for his own vulnerability. He often wondered whether the dogs were also able to sense that he needed help as much as they did. Three years later, Rohit looked at the images and found, somewhat to his surprise, that they told a story. And so it was that Rain Dogs came to be: as an exhibition and as a book, with contributions from some thirty writers complementing Rohit's very personal photographs that capture a time, a place, and a mood. Rain Dogs is a book to which the writers have contributed for free, and the author and the agent have waived their royalties, which will all go to registered animal welfare charities.

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