'Creation is all about colours when nature is untouched. It is a story that begins with joy but gradually turns black,' Delhi-based Purkayastha, a former advertising honcho, told IANS.

Colourful nature is Purkayastha's Eden, where Adam and Eve appear as the stone sculptures of man and woman on the walls of the Angkor Vat temple in Cambodia, in the rugged cliff heads of Vietnam and as the long-legged birds frolicking in a swollen Brahmaputra river in Assam.

The love story in Purkayastha's exhibition evolves in the two black and white sections - 'Flight' and 'Temptation', where the subjects are sharply etched in white against grey and black backgrounds.

'Adam is a giant hornbill with a mean beak and Eve is a dancing white crane. At the end of the divine love that they share, Adam flies out towards the sun as their passion sullies and Eve gives in to the tempting charms of Lucifer - the prince of darkness. She deserts the nest.

'It symbolises the woman, the traditional homemaker, who leaves home to seek the pleasures of the night outside. Genesis, as a story, does not have a happy ending, for the creations of god have vanished,' Purkayastha explained.

Lucifer is depicted in the dark expanses of night that canopy the shimmering subjects and in the ghostly head shots of the sculpted demon king - Ravana - found in the ruins of the Angkor Vat temple.

Purkayastha, who has been shooting Ladakh for the last 15 years, was honoured with the Habitat Award for Best Photography in 2002 and his coffee table book, 'Ladakh' won several prizes in India and Britain.

Lensmen across the globe celebrated World Photography Day Wednesday.