Two new books — Faces of Indian Art and India 20 — provide a glossy glimpse into the world of contemporary Indian art, with interesting anecdotes and rare photographs. Faces of Indian Art (pp 385; Rs 6,500; Art Alive Gallery) has Nemai Ghosh’s photographs as its highlight.

Ghosh embarked on his tour in 1971 when he photographed Benodebehari Mukherjee while Satyajit Ray was filming him for the documentary The Inner Eye. “I wondered how a visually impaired man could paint, and I was amazed to see him at work in his studio,” reminisces Ghosh. The studio — the personal space of an artist, with blobs of paint and quirkiness — left a mark on Ghosh’s mind, and he went on to capture many others during his sojourns in West Bengal. The breakthrough came three years ago when Manjit Bawa and Ina Puri stumbled on his works and introduced him to Sunaina Anand of Art Alive Gallery, who conceptualised the book. Says Anand: “It was important to document the photographs as they reveal a lot about the artists and take a peak into their studios, their personal space.”

A list of artists was chalked out and Ghosh went globetrotting for over two years to capture them in their studios. “It was important to capture the workplace as a reflection of the artist’s creations,” says Ghosh. So the book has SH Raza in his Paris abode, painting in a cluttered room filled with mementos from India — brass figurines, a clay pot and the Tricolour. Himmat Shah prefers a bare studio in Jaipur, and Jeram Patel is surrounded by stacks of newspapers and books at his workplace in Baroda. And even though some like Jamini Roy could not be captured in studios, a detailed description of their art finds a place in Faces of Indian Art.

The book, edited by Puri, has articles by Geeti Sen, Keshav Malik, R Siva Kumar and Samir Dasgupta.

Meanwhile, Anupa Mehta’s India 20 (pp 215; Rs 1,200; Mapin) has interviews with 20 prominent artists, including Bose Krishnamachari, Gupta, Atul Dodiya, Jitish Kallat and Jagannath Panda.