Friday, August 31, 2012


“…But each time your take a step, you discover yet another kind of space.  It’s not that you are reaching Nirvana – you don’t reach that.  You go closer to it.  There are layers and layers of things happening in the human mind, in the human spirit.  The possibilities are endless and total.”

-Raghu Rai

These women were photographed by me in Vrindavan, where they were sent with a one-way ticket by their families from Bengal when they became child widows.  They spend their entire day chanting or begging for alms in the streets.  It made me realize that social evils still attach themselves to contemporary society in India.

Wednesday, August 29, 2012


Tantric Self-Portrait in Jaipur, 37" x 37"

2000 - 2001, black and white photograph with oil, acrylic, gold, mud, and vermillion powder


In my work, I'm establishing contact with my inner self based on what I am feeling in that very moment... Even though we live in the moment, it is possible to have a picture of the future through meditation and by perceiving the direction in which things are going.  Through ritual and practice, it is possible to change anything.

This image was shown at the Admit One Gallery in New York in 2003, and resides in the permanent collection of the Ackland Art Museum, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

Untitled, 35" x 35"

Mixed-media on silver gelatin print


This picture references the hand-tinted photographs that became a craze in India during the nineteenth century.  The layering of imagery in my work is partly inspired by street posters in Indian cities, plastered to the walls, gratified, and then re-applied.

This image was shown at the Admit One Gallery in New York in 2003, and resides in the permanent collection of the Ackland Art Museum, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.