Dialects of Silence: Delhi Under Lockdown

"Parul Sharma has caught a unique moment in Indian history, producing a startling portfolio of a locked-down, masked, visored, sanitized, padlocked and disinfected Delhi, almost empty of its people and taken over by bored jawans and preening monkeys. Never has the Indian capital looked so unfamiliar, or so surreal." – William Dalrymple

Dialects of Silence is one photographer’s quest to seek Delhi’s deserted soul during four months of the lockdown as a pandemic ravaged the world.

Look closer.

We see a woman daring out in the city she calls home, capturing the haunting beauty of its historic buildings, sharing the grief of its Covid victims, and celebrating its vitality and courage.

She took thousands of photographs and Dialects of Silence is born out of her intimate conversations with one of the world’s greatest cities during those terrifying moments.

In a short span of three years, Parul Sharma has produced a huge body of diverse work, specializing in urban architectural forms, India’s cultural heritage and human portraits, winning critical acclaim in India and Europe. Her 2017 debut show, Parulscape, held in Delhi’s Bikaner House was followed in 2019, by a second solo exhibition Mystic India in Florence at the invitation of Museo Marino Marini, featuring her works on Kumbh Mela’s Naga sadhus and transgender devotees. For Dialects of Silence she documented over 10,000 frames of Delhi’s lockdown trauma. She is currently working on her second book on Mumbai’s Colaba. In 2017, she left a high-profile position in media communications to pursue her creative passion. She lives in Delhi.