How To Photograph Hindu Deities

[rug]

It's fairly common practice for painters to imitate photographs. There's even a term for it: Photorealism. But you don't see the inverse as often — that is, people trying to make photos look like paintings. That's what Manjari Sharma is attempting. The goal of her new project, called "Darshan," is to photographically recreate nine classical images of Hindu gods and goddesses. And that's no easy feat.

On a Kickstarter page, where she is campaigning for financial support to continue the project, Sharma explains the motivation behind her elaborate process. "Growing up in India," she says in the campaign video, "I saw spiritual paintings and sculptures of deities everywhere ... but never a photograph. ... My mission is to prove that a carefully created photograph can evoke a similar spiritual response."

Dilnaaz Mehta Sharma peers through her large-format camera on set.
Sharma plans to build every detail of each photograph by hand. The first image, and the only complete one, is of Maa Laxmi, the Hindu goddess of wealth and fortune. It involved set and prop builders, makeup artists, painters, carpenters and jewelry experts. And when everything was finally in place, Sharma captured the scene with a large-format film camera.

She responded to a few questions over email.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/pictureshow/2011/07/28/137827738/how-to-photograph-hindu-deities

[Sarah Ibarruri]

1. Fascinating! And I loved the close up of the eye makeup. I'll have to try that next time I go out

:-)

[dipsydoodle]

2. Be interesting to see how she copes with this one.

[Goblinmonger]

3. That's cool and all, but that woman has BEAUTIFUL eyes.

I liked the scale of that picture in the article.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

4. That is really neat.

[Vehl]

5. intersting.

Looks great, but I think they have to get rid of the frown :)