MALANI made her first set of photographic works in 1969 at VIEW (Vision Exchange Workshop) that functioned from 1969 to 1972. It was the only workshop in Bombay at that time that supported experimentation, to nurture interdisciplinary art practice including printmaking, photography and film. Her first photogram (camera-less photography), titled “Precincts”, has a linear structure, much like an architectural drawing. It was realized by placing different paper cut outs for specific lengths of time under the enlarger on photosensitive bromide paper. The technique of photograms was known to MALANI through works of Man Ray and László Moholy-Nagy. To understand the medium MALANI made a series of detailed methodical experiments, in several steps and exposure times that were meticulously planned, to develop a grey scale key. The photograms became progressively complex, with different types of materials which were opaque, translucent, and transparent.

These set of photograms were exhibited for the first and only time at her solo exhibition at Pundole Art Gallery Bombay, in July 1970. Here she juxtaposed six of her photograms with eight of her non-figurative paintings. She installed this as one coherent exhibition and specially chose to make the sizes of the photograms the same as the paintings, as photography was not accepted as a fine art at that time in India. However the two reviews of the exhibition praised the uniqueness of the photograms and the artist’s experiments.