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Airing tonight on PBS WTTW TV Channel 11, Arts Across Illinois @ 7:30 and 10:30 and Sunday @ 5:30 and 10:30 pm CST

Devotional Everything

Back to India...

The second night in India I was staying a guest house outside the city of Amritsar, providing refuge from the endless city noise. The owner was apologetic as he explained that there was going to be a concert of Hindu devotional music a few blocks away beginning at 11 pm. I was non-plused, as the transatlantic flight had left me with little energy.
I went to sleep with a hot water bottle in the bed and a crackling fire in the fire place. In the middle of the night my husband woke up and HAD to find the music. I was sure I would never see him again.

© Jane Fulton Alt

And so it is in India. It grabs at you in ways you never would imagine. It was one of the most difficult, challenging and confronting experiences I have ever had. I am processing it daily, trying to incorporate it into my understanding of life. I know there are ancient wisdoms to be gleaned and feel so grateful for having made the journey.

© Jane Fulton Alt

If you haven't seen this amazing skating performance by Merly Davis and Charlie White from the Olympics, it is fabulous. The music is from Bunty Aur Babli Slislla Ye Chaahat Ka & Dola Re Dola from Devdas and takes me right back to India.

Whitney Biennial and Stephanie Sinclair

I have been wanting to blog about Stephanie Sinclair for a long long time, ever since I saw an amazing 'war' photograph from Iraq in the Chicago Tribune a few years ago. She is INCREDIBLY talented and has used her vision to bring awareness to womens issues around the world. Her work is included in the Whitney Biennial 2010.

© Stephanie Sinclair

"Portrait of soon-to-be-wed Faiz Mohammed, 40, and Ghulam Haider, 11, at her home in a rural village of Damarda. Ghulam said she is sad to be getting engaged as she wanted to be a teacher. Her favorite class was Dari, the local language, before she was made to drop out of school. When asked how she felt that day, the bewildered girl responded, "I do not know this man. What am I supposed to feel?" According to a UNICEF study, in developing countries, around 65 million girls were married before the age of 18. Thirty million of them live in South Asia." ---Stephanie Sinclair

Stephanie has covered many subjects, including Self-Immolation: A Cry for Help, “A Cutting Tradition: Inside An Indonesian Female Circumcision Celebration,” "Polygamy In America", and it goes on and on. She has amazing talent, energy and drive. The world is a much better place because of her. More of her photographic essays can be seen HERE and are well worth the time to explore.

Gandhi

Back to the subject of India (and you thought I was finished)!

I visited Gandhi's Ashram, located just outside Ahmedabad and now a national monument. It was a very moving experience to walk through the "My Life is My Message" Gallery, consisting of paintings, photographs and text of historic events in Gandhi's life.


Gandhi's Visitor Room

"There is an indefinable, mysterious power, that pervades everything. I feel it, though I do not see it. It is this unseen power which makes itself felt and yet defies all proof, because it is so unlike all that I perceive through my senses. It transcends the senses, but it is possible to reason out the existence of God to a limited extent. Even in ordinary affairs we know that people do not know who rules or why and how he rules and yet they know that there is a power that certainly rules. That informing power or spirit is God, and since nothing else that I see merely through the senses can or will persist, he alone is. And is this power, benevolent or malevolent? I see it as purely benevolent, for I can see that in the midst of death, life persists; in the midst of untruth, truth persists; in the midst of darkness, light persists. Hence I gather that God is life, truth, light. He is love, he is the supreme good. But he is no God who merely satisfies the intellect if he ever does. God, to be God, must rule the heart and transform it. He must express himself in every smallest act of his votary. This can only be done through a definite realization more real than the five senses can ever produce. Sense perceptions can be, and often are, false and deceptive however real they may appear to us. Where there is realization outside the senses, it is infallible. It is proved not by extraneous evidence, but in the transformed conduct and character of those who have felt the real presence of God within."
--- Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi

On Hope and Despair

I was rattled last night as I watched a most riveting play, "Master Harold'...And The Boys, written by Athol Fugard at Timeline Theater in Chicago. (if you live in the vicinity, please go see it)

I have been keenly aware of my own struggle between hope and despair that is manifested as I "channel surf" TV, watching the beauty of the Olympic athletes "working" their dreams contrasted with the reality of current affairs as reported in the news. Much to my surprise, this play was incredibly timely and relevant.

The play addressed the tension in South African during the 1950's era of apartheid but its power was in its incredible acting, dialogue and universal themes of humanity. It spoke of the great heros through out history and art as "giving form to the formless." The play also referenced kites as a metaphor for hope, which have been a photographic obsession of mine over the years.

Chicago in the Year 2000

I also just learned that the 2005 film “Tsotsi,” was adapted from the South African playwright Fugard’s novel of the same name and won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language film. It was a wonderful film and definitely worth watching.

Chicago in the Year 2000

And then this morning while I was in the midst of reading A Fine Balance by Mistry, I came across this passage on pg 228 "...the secret to survival is to embrace change, and to adapt...all things fall and are built again ...sometimes you have to use your failures as stepping stones to success... you have to maintain a fine balance between hope and despair....in the end, it's all a question of balance."

how do i find my balance, now that i have returned from india?

Women and Water

There are some very important programs about water distribution and conservation, three of which are spearheaded by local Chicago women; Ann Feldman, Karen May, and Cynthia Raskin.

Karen is working to raise money to create cisterns in Mexican villages through H2O for Mexico.



Ann has created an AMAZING organization, Artistic Circles, in which Water Pressures is one of the projects. She is working on a collaborative project with the Jai Bhagirahi Foundation in Rajasthan, India and Northwestern University students to bring more creative solutions to the water shortages in Rajasthan. So incredibly impressive..



Cynthia has created a program Recycle the Raindrops, in which she is trying to bring greater awareness to our water consumption in the Great Lakes region.

All by women, All about Water....AWESOME!

Water

I have water on the brain. After returning from Varanasi, I have been reflecting a great deal on water, a subject I have been photographing my entire photographic life. Not surprising as it is so essential to the life force.

©1995

I am reading a book MRTYU, Concept of Death in Indian Traditions. It begins, "It has been said that in India death (mrtyu) is not opposed, as in the West, to idea of life (jivan) but rather to birth (jati)." I began thinking of one of my very favorite early images where birth and death seemed to be present in one single image.

© 1995

Th last 2 days of my trip in India I finally settled in and found my photographic voice. The artist statment I have used for years on my website fits the work perfectly...

These photographic images reflect my exploration of the ineffable mystery of the life force, searching for what is true and eternal. This quest is fueled by a persistent longing to return home.








Maybe I don't need to photograph anymore?