Shows

Sacred Space

Ashtanga yoga is a traditional form of yoga whose magic is revealed in its daily practice.  It is traced back over 2000 years to Patanjali's Yoga Sutras. Ashtanga is an accessible but rigorous form of yoga that can result in profound physical and emotional transformation in one lifetime.  This may be the yoga of longevity, alchemy, and levitation?

The photos in this series are my way of describing the profound gratitude I feel for the generosity of Sri K. Pattabhi Jois, known among his adoring students as Guruji, Saraswathi Rangaswami, and Sharath Rangaswami. They are  father, daughter, and grandson, who comprise the first family of ashtanga yoga.

 The Ashtanga Yoga Research Center is their yoga shala in Mysore, South India, and it attracts students from around the world.  Many of the students are themselves yoga teachers who return regularly to devote full attention to their personal practices. These teachers nuture the lineage by teaching the way they were taught, and by opening the doors to peace, compassion, and joyful devotion.

“Going on location” is familiar to me from my advertising photography background.  This photography practice is different.  What occurred time and again was magical.  Performing asana at a two thousand year old temple site, near or in one of India's holy rivers, under the canopy of a sacred tree, at the palace with an ancient tradition of yoga, or simply in the monsoon of nature's bounty, resulted in the unexpected gift of enormous prana.  The process of photography resulted in increased life force for me, for the models, and for the ever-present spectators.

The photographs in the Sacred Space series were made during more than a year spent in India over the span of four years.  Many of the models are authorized and certified Ashtanga yoga teachers and all of the locations are within a three hour drive from Mysore, South India.  The high resolution digital photographs were made with the Nikon D2X and D200 shot in RAW format.

 

Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health, 51 Interlaken Road, Stockbridge, MA 01262 through September 2008

India Song House, 2631 Mohalla, 2nd Main, Mysore, India, January 2008

Centerpoint Studio, 324 Lafayette Street, New York, NY 10012, October through December 2007