Evocative Portraits of Holy Men in India by Joey L.
Photos by Joey L
Joey Lawrence (known as Joey L) is a Canadian commercial photographer, director and published author based in Brooklyn, New York. Although he is recently best known as the creator of the Twilight movie posters, he is also known to have a deep interest in endangered cultures, traditions and rare religious practices. As a personal project, Joey traveled to Varanasi, India to create images for a series called, “Holy Men". While focusing on featuring religious ascetics in one of the oldest cities in the world and the “epicenter of the Hindu faith”, he was able to capture evocative portraits of actual holy men for this series.
In addition to the portraits, he was accompanied by filmmaker Cale Glendening, and Ryan, a close friend/assistant, to also create their documentary titled, “Beyond". The short film features a behind-the-scenes view of their experience in this third world, along with an emphasis on the photographer’s subjects, and mesmerizing and sometimes bizarre lifestyle.
Most of the portraits focus on the Aghori, a sect known for engaging in postmortem rituals, such as covering themselves in human ashes, meditating on corpses or crafting jewelry from human bones. “The Aghori have a profound connection with the dead. Death is not a fearsome concept, but a passing from the world of illusion,” says the photographer. Check out the photos below and find more on his website. Also be sure the see the eye opening documentary here.
[Via Demilked]
Vibrant Photos of India's Holi Festival
Photos by Rajesh Kumar Singh/Associated Press
Beginning on the full moon in the middle of March with an evening bonfire, the ancient Hindu festival of color and love known as Holi is celebrated to embrace the coming of Spring. This past weekend, as most of us in the Western world still feel the grey wrath of Winter, Associated Press photographer Rajesh Kumar Singh was there to capture and share all the vibrant photos from this visually striking festival, bringing a pleasant reminder of all the Spring color that is to come.
Along with singing and dancing into the night, Holi is filled with vividly colored paints and waters, thrown freely at strangers and friends alike to celebrate the triumph of good over evil. As of recently, while Holi celebrations are most widely-known to be in India and Nepal, the festival has spread westward into Europe and the U.S. as well. Festivals also vary by location depending on tradition or mythological belief by regions and villages that celebrate. For example, in the city of Barsana in northern India, women playfully hit men from the nearby village of Nandgaon with wooden sticks as they parade through the town.
Before you explore through the following photos rich in color and culture, I leave you with a statement on the nation's government website from over the weekend by Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh, who wrote: "May the festival bring health, happiness and prosperity to all."
[Via Mashable]
