Enter Manjari Sharma’s Darshan. Named for a Sanskrit word which means “sight”, “vision” or “view, Manjari’s new project seeks to photographically recreate nine classical images of Hindu Gods and Goddesses. These icons are deeply connected to Sharma’s spiritual upbringing. By melding them with her reverence and devotion to photography, she is creating altars of her own.

You’ll never believe what goes into making these images. It’s a full-on production of costume designers, set stylists, jewelry designers, carpenters and painters. Sharma believes art is much about the process, and this is one hell of a process.

This is the first image, Maa Laxmi, the goddess of wealth, good fortune, and prosperity.

Here is more about the project, and an amazing behind-the-scenes look at the work as it is created:

Darshan from Manjari Sharma on Vimeo.

PLEASE consider donating to Sharma’s project. These images ought to be created. Click here and help out! You can even receive a signed, editioned print. Totally worth it, this is an excellent use of Kickstarter.

Here is more from Sharma in her own words:

“I grew up in a Hindu home to parents who were quite spiritual, religious and god fearing as they would call it in India. I visited countless temples, shrines, and discourses as frequently as my parents wanted. These discourses circled around unraveling the mysteries locked in chapters of mythological enigma and tales of deities, reincarnations and astrology. The roots of hindu mythology run deep; my own experiences as a child ranged from being fascinated and enlightened to lost and still seeking. Naturally, coming back home still consists of delving back into the same routine of worship and meditation I left behind.

I moved from India to the United States in 2001 in order to pursue an undergraduate study in Fine Art Photography. The frequency with which I visited Hindu temples in what felt like my previous life, gradually got replaced with visits to art galleries, museums and studios, where creativity in all mediums of expression are revered.

This series bridges two parts of my world. Iconography in the Indian religion found in temples and scriptures are ultimately artistic representations of mythological characters. Most hindus have seen the use of painting and sculpture but rarely photography taken to the level of exacting measures with respect to showcasing deities. The creation of these images has become my act of devotion, to art and to religion.”

Go to Manjari Sharma’s site.

Go to Kickstarter and be inspired.

Yeah, what did you do that was so productive during the blizzard? I found some old packets of saltines and went to town. Jamie Stuart made a movie that received critical acclaim from Roger Ebert. So I think he wins.

Here’s what Roger has to say, and some quotes from his correspondence with Stuart. Amazing this was all done in one day with a 7D:

This film deserves to win the Academy Award for best live-action short subject.

(1) Because of its wonderful quality. (2) Because of its role as homage. It is directly inspired by Dziga Vertov’s 1929 silent classic “Man With a Movie Camera.” (3) Because it represents an almost unbelievable technical proficiency. It was filmed during the New York blizzard of Dec. 26.

You can tell from the cinematography he knew exactly what he was doing and how to do it. He held the Vertov film in memory. Stuart must already been thinking of how he would do the edit and sound. Any professional will tell you the talent exhibited here is extraordinary.

I wrote Jamie Stuart asking how in the name of heaven he made that film. He e-mailed in return:

“The simple answer as to how it was done so quickly: practice.

Most of the work I’ve done for the past half dozen years has been improvised online press-related shorts, which by nature requires a fast turnaround. Before that, I used to storyboard all my work — so I had a strong sense of film language. The trick is to step into situations, often without a plan, and try to make it look like it was all planned. For instance, when I first started doing work for Filmmaker Magazine, I had just done my NYFF44 series, and Scott Macaulay asked if he could see the scripts I used for the episodes; I had to tell him there weren’t any.

Technically, for “Idiot with a Tripod,” I shot with my Canon 7D and edited it with Final Cut Pro. Early on, I was able to vary things a little more — I used macro diopters for the close-ups during the day shots, my portable slider for the dolly shots and also, a 75-300 zoom for the rooftop shots. I was more limited at night because of the weather conditions, so I stuck with my 24mm, 50mm and 85mm — all of which are manual Nikon lenses. Which meant that in the middle of that maelstrom I was changing lenses, wiping off the lenses and manually focusing/adjusting each shot.

The funny thing is, for the first part of the shoot I felt early uninspired and almost stopped. But I kept going. And it ultimately turned out really nice.

I started shooting around 1pm for about 30 minutes outside. Went out for another 15 minutes around 3pm. Meanwhile, I intermittently grabbed shots through my apartment window. (Lunch occurred around 2:30. Dinner was around 7:30. Can’t remember what I ate. Maybe pasta.) Then, the main nighttime shoot began at 9pm and lasted until about 10:30.

I wasn’t that cold — I was bundled, had a hat, gloves and scarf. The one stupid thing I did was to forget my snow boots and wore my Adidas, which, along with my pants, were soaked by the time I got in.

Because the 7D shoots H.264, which is a web format and not meant for editing, I made selects from the footage and converted the selects into ProRes 422. I started it that night, but it takes a while to do. Went to bed my normal time around 1:30 am. Got up my normal time around 10am. Finished converting the footage. Then, I edited until I finished around 5pm. (I took a regular lunch break at around 2:30 — chicken noodle and Saltines.)

The final shot, where the camera pulls back from the window, was done around 1pm. I uploaded the video just after 5pm, after I finished burning a Quicktime, and sent the link around. “

Here is the The Man with a Movie Camera, the original inspiration:

See Ebert’s full post here.

Does anyone else love this as much as I do?

Whitney Johnson wrote recently about the project in The New Yorker:

UPDATE:  there’s much more on Richard Mosse from the swell dudes over at DVA foto. Here and here.

More about the work:

A poor beautiful woman is rescued by a wealthy prince. Before they can happily live together both protagonists have to go through many obstacles and deal with many evil people. The plot is known as the “Cinderella” story, and Telenovelas are the Latin American soap operas that endlessly apply this plot to a hugely successful form of entertainment.

Called The Factory of Dreams, no one produces more telenovelas than Mexican’s Televisa studios. Telenovelas and its protagonists are a powerful vehicle to understand contemporary Latin American culture and its society. Stefan’s photographs of the factory of dreams and the people working in it disclose this secret world to us with humor and affection. All Images are shot in the Televisa Studios, Mexico City.

This is René Casados, in character for the soap Corazones Al Limite (Hearts’Limit). He’s Mexican but he was ‘discovered’ by the producers in a café in Paris. He has worked his way up at Televisa to a position of influence. He has a lot of say in what happens there and his liking us meant we got a lot more access than we would have had otherwise. As well as acting, he also worked as an image consultant for Carlos Salinas de Gortari, Mexico’s last president. He likes his cigars.

Televisa Studios, in the San Angel neighborhood of Mexico City, is called ‘The Factory of Dreams’ and is best known for its telenovelas – its soap operas. These fantasies of love, wealth and betrayal are one of Mexico’s largest exports, popular throughout Latin America but also in Africa, Asia, Europe and the USA. Former Televisa stars include Selma Hayek and Gael García Bernal. Rogelio Guerra who starred in Los Ricos También Lloran (The Rich Also Cry) – a show whose finale was watched by 70 percent of the population of Russia – once delivered the Russian New Year’s presidential address when Boris Yeltsin couldn’t make it.

All the images were shot 4×5 and hand-printed (real c-prints!), so they’re a treat to see in person. Check it out!

F.L.O.A.T. Gallery
539 Atlantic Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11217
646.239.8834

The show is curated by Caroll Taveras and Meagan Ziegler-Haynes.

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Somewhat related? The new cover of W Magazine. I just don’t know what to think…. I guess the point is that the picture looks like a Sears portrait?

I’m not convinced, Patrick.

Hunters seem to be a sticky topic lately. They Are awfully photographic.

Here’s more about the project, and some additional images.

Hunters

These portraits are the start of a new long term project documenting hunting, hunters, and the hunted, and those spaces associated with hunting.

As a child I was fascinated by the tales of Colonel Jim Corbett hunting man-eating Tiger in India. As an art student it was Peter Beard’s seminal work ‘The End of the Game’ that fascinated and inspired.
In 1965 he wrote the following:

‘The game is both the hunt and the hunted, the sport and the trophy. There was a time when the hunter killed only for his life and food, man had to be protected from the beasts, today the beasts must be protected from man’…

That was 1965, so where are we now..?

The hunter is still with us. When once his companions were aristocracy they are now self made men.  This was my starting point, but I should add, I’m not a hunter, I’m a photographer, a very recent observer of the industry, and I’m deeply convinced by what I’ve seen that it is only by dialogue and understanding that a sustainable harmony between nature and mankind can be forged. The relationship between man and animals is hugely complex and we’re both struggling to adapt to our changing environments. Hunting is an emotive subject, and in pretty much all it’s forms graphic, that’s obviously one of the reasons I chose to work on it, it can be toweringly beautiful and painfully raw at the same time whether it be by man, or animal.

This work will seek to explore the intricate and complex relationship between man and animals and how both struggle to adapt to their changing environments.

What do you think of the portraits with the bloody faces? I’m not sure.

I like a long term project, and Fougeron’s in fascinating. Not least because these kids seem to have grown up rather smoothly; even their awkward phases are pretty aesthetically pleasing. Also they appear to entertain girls in hot tubs and drinks beers with full parental consent.

Sign me up, Martine?

About the series:

I have been building dioramas and photographing the results since the early 1990s. As I’ve working through various bodies of work, from Accidentally Kansas, Lost and now The City, my fabrication skills have improved and my subject matter has become more complex. With The City series I have moved indoors, creating architectural interiors. This has proven most difficult yet most rewarding. Currently it takes about seven months to build a scene and two to three weeks to shoot the final image. I build these in my Brooklyn living room. I have miniature power tools throughout the apartment, a chop saw under the kitchen table, a miniature table saw on top. The computer room doubles as a model mock-up room. There are two of us who work on them, myself and my partner Kathleen. We split the work according to our strengths. I come up with the concept, the color palette and the lighting scenarios. I build the structures out of extruded foam and glue and paint and anything else handy. Kathleen is trained as a glass artist, specializing in cast glass work. She can paint faux finishes and gild architectural details with gold leaf. After I’m done building the structure and painting it, she comes in and adds dirt and distresses the walls to make it look old and decrepit.

I am fascinated, maybe even a little obsessed, with the idea of the apocalypse. In addition to my childhood experiences with natural disasters, I also grew up watching 1970s films known as “disaster flicks”. I remember watching Towering Inferno, Earthquake, Planet of Apes and sitting in awe in the dark. Here was the same type of dangers I had experienced day to day being magnified and played out on the big screen in a typical Hollywood way. Each of these experiences has greatly influenced my photographic work. The series Accidentally Kansas explored my personal experience with the natural disasters of my childhood. The City postulates what it would be like to live in a city that is post man-kind, where man has left his mark by the architecture, but mother nature is taking back these spaces. Flora, fauna and insects mix with the detris of high and low culture.

Museum of Art

Library

Laundromat

Clock Tower

Church

Bar

I’m especially drawn to the images from the series Woodpecker.

Jeff has a show up now at Hasted Hunt, check it out. And read more about him on SPREAD.