NICHOLAS VREELAND: Travels with a Monk

 Offering a scarf to His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

Color Portrait by Ven. Nicholas Vreeland

RETURN TO THE ROOF OF THE WORLD, Photo Exhibition, Taipei

Khyongla Rato Rinpoche and Ven. Nicholas Vreeland, Photographer and Abbot of Rato Monastery in Southern India, traveled to Hong Kong and Taipei where Vreeland's exhibition, "RETURN TO THE ROOF OF THE WORLD: A Photographic Exhibition by Nicholas Vreeland," of color portraits and black and white photographs is showing through February 28.

 Nicholas Vreeland Photo Exhibition, Taipei, February 2014

RETURN TO THE ROOF OF THE WORLD
A Photographic Exhibition by Nicholas Vreeland

February 14-28 2014

Huashan 1914 Creative Park

1F, M2, No. 1, Sec. 1, Bade Rd., Taipei, Taiwan

We went to see Master Guo Ru, Dharma Heir of Master Sheng Yen

Follow @nvreeland on Instagram

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MANJARI SHARMA: ClampArt Gallery

Manjari Sharma's Maa Kali

“‘Darshan’ is a fine art series that aims to photographically recreate nine classical images of Gods and Goddesses pivotal to mythological stories in Hinduism. My vision for this work is to have the reproductions that measure six feet tall. The final presentation of this work would resultantly be a massive print installation in a museum that closely mimics the experience of a Hindu temple, complete with incense, lamps, and invocations, accompanied by detailed texts about the mythological significance of that deity.” – Manjari Sharma

read more here

 

ClampArt Gallery 
through October 12

521 West 25th Street, NY

MANJARI SHARMA | DARSHAN @ClampArt

Lord Vishnu

Maa Laxmi

Lord Ganesha

Darshan

Photographs by Manjari Sharma

ClampArt presents, “Darshan: Photographs by Manjari Sharma,” the artist’s first solo show in New York City.

“Darshan” is a Sanskrit word meaning “vision” or “view,” and is most commonly used in the context of Hindu worship. It can also be translated as an “apparition” or a “glimpse.” One may seek and receive the Darshan of a deity, and upon sight, that Darshan may invoke an immediate connection between that deity and the devotee. A Darshan can ultimately be described as an experience purposed on helping one focus and call out to his or her sense of spirituality.

“Darshan” is a series that aims to photographically recreate various classical images of Gods and Goddesses pivotal to mythological stories in Hinduism. Printed on a massive scale, these photographs are presented at ClampArt in an elaborate installation that closely mimics the experience of a Hindu temple, complete with incense, lamps, and invocations.

Historically, Hindu deities have been depicted endlessly through painting and sculpture. However, portraying these Gods and Goddesses photographically is what makes Sharma’s project so unique. To make imagery for the series, exhaustive research on each character leads to the assemblage of a team of approximately thirty-five Indian craftsmen who create props, sets, prosthetics, make-up, costumes, and jewelry to the artist’s exacting specifications. These shoots rival the production standards of a motion picture film in both complexity and budget. The final photographs are not the product of extensive digital manipulation through Photoshop, but rather are primarily straight images  planned in-camera made with extreme patience, perseverance, and an elaborate vision.

Manjari Sharma (b. 1979) is a photographer born and raised in Mumbai, India, now based in Brooklyn, New York. She has a BA in Visual Communication from S.N.D.T. University, Mumbai, and a BFA in Still Photography from Columbia College of Art and Design in Columbus, Ohio. Her images have appeared in such publications as “Forbes India Magazine,” “Vogue India,” and “Geo Magazine,” and online at NPR, “The New York Times,” The Huffington Post, “PDN,” and “Life Magazine.” Sharma received an honorable mention for the prestigious Santa Fe Prize in 2012, and she was invited as a “Shots and Works” artist for LOOK 3: Festival of the Photograph in 2013. (text courtesy of ClampArt)

This exhibition is generously supported by LTI/Lightside Photographic Services. More about The Darshan Project

ClampArt

September 12 – October 12, 2013
521-531 West 25th Street, NY

Artist’s Reception:
Thursday, September 12, 2013
6:00 to 8:00 p.m.

APERTURE 40TH SPECIAL ISSUE FALL 1992-II: Richard Misrach + Mary Ellen Mark

                         Richard Misrach (click to enlarge)

White Man Contemplating Pyramids, Egypt 1989

© Richard Misrach, courtesy Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco, 

Marc Selwyn Fine Art, Los Angeles and Pace/MacGill Gallery, New York

 APERTURE Cover by ROBERT RAUSCHENBERG
40th Year Anniversary Issue, Fall 1992

I recently came across APERTURE'S 40TH YEAR SPECIAL ANNIVERSARY ISSUE, published in Fall 1992. It's an extraordinary look back at Photography before the popularity of digital camera's came into the picture. ("Not until 2001 did Kodak begin selling mass-market digital cameras"–Ben Dobbin, AP). Michael E. Hoffman was still Director and Publisher of the Aperture Foundation. Hoffman published the legendary Diane Arbus Monograph by Marvin Israel and Doon Arbus in 1972, now in it's 40th-Year Anniversary printing, as well as books by Edward Weston, W. Eugene Smith, Paul Strand and Dorothea Lange, among many other greats.

The following excerpt is from Aperture's 40th Anniversary Issue: 

"1992, ABOUT APERTURE: Forty Years after it's origination, Aperture celebrates the Founders' affirming spirit. Seventy photographers published in Aperture since 1952 selected photographs especially for this Anniversary Issue. One image from each artist was chosen. The photographers also wrote their thoughts on photography in general or, if they referred, about their work in particular, much as the founders suggested should happen in their first editorial."

"...In keeping with the spirit of Dorothea Lange and other Founders who measured Aperture's success in part by the depth and expression of it's social conscience, Aperture will continue to be a forum for those photographers who are committed to confronting the crises and concerns of our time...." –THE EDITORS, Number One Hundred Twenty-Nine, Fall 1992

Also included in this issue were photographs by Josef Koudelka, Eugene Richards, Eudora Welty, Sophie Calle, McDermott and McGough, Alex Webb, Sally Mann, Maggie Steber, Chuck Close, Thomas Struth, David Turnley, Helen Levitt, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Carrie Mae Weems, Joel Sternfeld, Masahisa Fukase, Jan Groover, Nick Knight, Barbara Morgan, David Wojnarowicz and Margaretta K. Mitchell. There may have been others I missed. See APERTURE'S 40TH YEAR SPECIAL ANNIVERSARY ISSUE: Part I here

Left, RICHARD MISRACH, White Man Contemplating Pyramids, 1989, as seen on page 50, APERTURE 1992 40th Year Anniversary issue. Right, ELAINE REICHEK, Red Delicious, 1991.

Left, INGE MORATH, Untitled, 1961, and right, MARY ELLEN MARK, Acrobats Rehearsing, Great Golden Circus, Ahmadabad, India, 1989, as seen on pages 32 and 33, APERTURE 1992 40th Year Anniversary issue.

APERTURE 40th Year, Fall 1992: PART I

Many thanks to the Fraenkel Gallery for your help in posting Richard Misrach's, White Man Contemplating Pyramids, Egypt 1989