Happenings is a tribute to the epiphany, the infinitesimal pause during which a moment becomes an occasion. In this private journal of images, which Ashvin Mehta has maintained over a considerable period while travelling around the world on assignment, the distinguished photographer's eye demonstrates its receptiveness to the unanticipated stimulus at the edge of the brief. This suite of photographs records a series of occasions when, by a chance coming together of light, gesture and object, the miasma of routine lifts from the perception, mantling even the most ordinary sights in the aura of the miraculous: the apparition of a roof against a cloud, a door glimpsed on turning a corner, a tricycle found on a beach, a boat cresting a wave, The images memorialised in Happenings are intimations of this mystery, in communicating which Ashvin Mehta invites his viewers to share in a heightened and lyrical sense of possibility, a sense of rapture.

Ashwin Mehta (1931-) is one of India's most distinguished photographers. In a career that spans several decades, he has excelled in various genres, including nature photography, destination photography, and the cityscapes. His work has been collected in a series of books, including Himalaya : encounters with Eternity (Thames & Hudson, London, 1985), Coasts of India (Thames & Hudson, London, 1987), Gifts of Solitude (Mapin, Ahmedabad, 1991), Hundred Himalayan flowers (Mapin, Ahmedabad, 1992), and Happenings - Journal of Luminous Moments (Hindustan Inks, Gujarat, 2003). His work has also been shown in the group exhibitions Creative Eye curated by Raghu Rai (New Delhi, 1972); Indian Photograph 1844-1984, curated by Mitter Bedi (Darmsadt, 1984); and Another Way of Seeing, curated by Circle of 24 (The Netherlands, 1992). Mehta has also been engaged in a number of prestigious collective projects, including A Day in the Life of India (Collins, London, 1995), and the Festivals of India in Britain (1982), Russia (1990) and Germany (1991). He has been commissioned as a destination photographer by Singapore Airlines, the Oberoi Hotels, and the India Tourism Development Corporation. He has also photographed the Indian medicinal plants for a monograph by chemical Export Promotion Council (Chemexil), and the spices of India for the Taj Hotels. Mehta, who first exhibited his photographs in 1966, has since held exhibitions at Jehangir Art Gallery, the Centre for Photography as an Art Form, and Gallery Chemould, Bombay; the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, and Max Mueller Bhavan, New Delhi, and the Gardner Centre for the Arts, Brighton, Britain.