{Sundara} Faces of India Show Closing Friday Sept 3 6:30–10pm
In December 2008 I embarked on a two-month trip to India that began in the south and trekked north to Nepal. Like many travelers who visit India from the West, it was a life-changing experience, particularly considering the capitalistically driven lifestyle that Westerners live -- focused on money, commerce, things. I had the pleasure of staying with various families during my travels, and I couldn't help but notice that, despite living in one of the poorest regions of the world, they seemed much happier than the families I'd known in the West. I was also struck by their sense of welcoming and humanity, happily surprised at how they took me in for weeks at a time, providing food and shelter without question. They treated me as if I was their own child, and I in turn, felt like family to them. I wanted to celebrate their beauty and compassion through my portraiture. My hope was to capture their elegance as in a painting, as if I had painted them. I generally only took one or two images per subject before I felt I got what I wanted. Their characters shone through immediately. Most of the subjects in this exhibit had never seen themselves in a photograph. My hope is that when viewing these images a universal sense of humanity shines through. |
|
