The first time we encountered Akshay Mali, it was through his nude self-portraits on social media. But, it wasn’t him posing in the buff that elicited our shock and awe, as much as the near freezing temperatures in which these photographs were taken. We see Mali sitting in an open meadow against a snow-clad mountain in Spiti Valley, bare in the cold, free almost of his own skin. To a viewer, such an attempt would seem unthinkable, certainly foolish.

For Mali, it helped “rekindle my connection with the natural world,” while developing an inexplicable physical and mental strength to fight the extreme conditions. “At one point, I couldn’t feel the cold,” he says, or rather, the cold couldn’t feel him. “But, I was very conscious of what I was putting my body through.”  Mali’s brazenness might seem unsettling to many. He is aware of the reaction his work elicits. The intention is to provoke, he admits. “In fact, that gives me a lot of energy and positivity to push myself further.”