Observance

Gijun, Shinto, Japan Israa, Muslim, Iraq


Pere, Orthodox Christian, France Gursharan, Sikh, UK


Swami, Hindu, India Lee, Taoist, Singapore
1 DECEMBER 2007 - 16 MARCH 2008
OBSERVANCE
Portraits by Nicola Dove

Observance is a series of long exposure portraits and soundscapes of people in a meditative state of prayer from a wide spectrum of spiritual practices and faiths from around the world. Long exposures hark back to the beginnings of photography, when film was slow and shutter-speeds long, and when it was commonly believed that a photograph could capture one's soul.

Some portraits seem to have an ability to capture more than just a two dimensional representation of skin and bone. Nicola Dove realised this when, in the hills of Nepal in 2003, she made a series of portraits of Tibetan Lamas. On her return to London, a curator responded to one particular portrait saying she could feel the energy of the Lama, as if she were in his presence. The seeds for Observance had been planted.

http://www.pataka.org.nz