India

These photographs were made on the first two of 5 annual visits I have made to Kerala.

As the only American invited to an international convocation of over one hundred photographers, I traveled to Kerala in south western India to give the opening address and ensuing seminar on Quality and the Art of Photography (simultaneously translated into Malayalam)

While there, I arranged an international exchange of Indian and US photographers, and managed to take some interesting images while traveling for a museum exhibition to be held on my Indian experience in 2007.

I split my experience between two visits. The first trip in 2005 dealt with the convocation and organization of the various projects I was involved with and initiated. The second trip in 2006 was gave me a real insight into the people and places of Kerala. I spent ten days touring the Keralan countryside and jungles, visiting some places that had not seen a white face in years. We were so far off the beaten track at times that there was no track left to beat.

I witnessed a Hindu celebration that lasted three days and nights. Red-robed priests and priestess literally went into trances of chanting and dancing. Some, wielding hook shaped ceremonial swords, actually whacked themselves on the head in their state of ecstasy, leaving open and bloody scars that dripped for days.

Of over fifty thousand people in the temple, I was the only foreigner.