Aam Aastha: Indian Devotions

In AAM AASTHA, internationally renowned photographer Charles Freger continues to spotlight global traditions and cultures by celebrating the powerful visual aspects of Indian folk culture and religious ritual. Indiais home to a myriad of local traditions, legends, and religions, each with their own festivals, rites, and ceremonies. Celebrations burst with vivid colors and often wildly exuberant costumes, some representing gods and goddesses, others legendary heroes from Sanskrit epics such as the Mahabharata and the Ramayana.

Freger’s unmistakable style of portraiture emphasizes the complexity of these adornments–masks and headdresses, costumes, and body paint–and the abundance of imagination that expresses India’s countless stories and characters, both human and divine.

This spectacular gathering of warrior figures, deities, musicians, epic characters, and their avatars is accompanied by texts by novelist and journalist Anuradha Roy and philosopher and critic Catherine Clement, who contextualize the events, as well as descriptions of individual costumes, masks, and rituals by Kuhu Kopariha. This compelling sequence of new portraits will enthrall those with an interest in folk traditions, as well as the followers of this internationally acclaimed photographer.