SAMUEL ZUDER PHOTOGRAPHY
Face To Faith | Book
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In the midst of the stony desert of the Changtang plateau, it towers up like a pyramid: the Mt. Kailash (Sanskrit: kelasa - “Crystal”) or “Kang Rinpoche” (“jewel of snow”) as the Tibetans call it. The four religions of Hindus, Buddhists, Jains and Böns not only worship the most remote and difficult to access Kailash as holy mountain but also as the origin of the universe, as the hub of the world.
Year after year, hundreds of believers set out for the exhausting pilgrimage to the Kailash and they circumambulate the mountain on a 54 kilometers long path – the so-called kora. Deeply religious pilgrims walk the path doing prostrations. These pilgrims will be on the way for 2 – 4 weeks. A kora shall free them from sin. Buddhists believe that 108 circumambulations lead towards enlightenment.
The pilgrims combine different colors, shapes and fabrics in good style concerning clothes and equipment. They almost set fashionable accents in a barren and empty landscape. On the one hand, we look into faces of humility, modesty and without vanity and on the other hand, we see self-confident, independent personalities with a distinctive stylistic consciousness.
The landscapes are metaphors for the encounter of the human and the divine aspect that gives this place its particular importance. Signs of the earthly can be found everywhere: houses, huts, tents, paths, vehicles, horses, yaks and last but not least the ant-small figures on their way around the holy mountain. The pilgrims are connected to each other by a great, spiritual purpose: they made a great journey to take on a subordinate role to a higher, non-human authority – to the holy Mount Kailash.
Out of respect for its spiritual importance the Mount Kailash has never been climbed. In 1985, Reinhold Messner was authorized to climb it but he consciously decided against it. For this reason, the Mount Kailash is one of the rare untrodden places of our world.
On top the Mount Kailash seems to be melting in light, fog, mist and clouds where the pilgrims assume the seat of the gods, the hub of the world or just the origin of the universe.
FACE TO FAITH | MOUNT KAILASH | TIBET
hardcover
format: 28 x 33 cm
192 pages, 5 foldouts
5 detachable transparent pages with image information
88 color photos
printed on: Luxo Art Samt 170 g/m2
design by Peter Schmidt - PSBZ
bilingual: german/english publisher: Hatje Cantz Verlag
prize: 58,- € plus shipping
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SAMUEL ZUDER Samuel Zuder lives in Hamburg. Since graduating at the FH Dortmund, Dept. of Visual Communication, he works as a freelance photographer for international magazines.
Besides his commissioned work, he realizes personal photo projects, such as the most recently photobook "Face to Faith | Mount Kailash | Tibet, a portrait and landscape series on the sacred Mount Kailash, or the photo documentation "Headless Palm Trees" on the Iranian commemorative battlefields of the first Gulf War at the Shatt al Arab, published in Mare magazine and in the photobook "Iran - Tausend und ein Widerspruch" in the National Geographic Book Edition.
His work was presented at the "XXVemes Rencontres de la Photographie" in Arles, the "1st Daegu Photo Biennale" in South Korea, the "Metropolitan Museum of Photography" in Tokyo, the "C/O Berlin Gallery" and the "Photography Forum Frankfurt".
Samuel Zuder has received several awards and his work is published in numerous books and catalogues. He is internationally represented by "laif - agency for photos & reportages" in Cologne.
FACE TO FAITH
MOUNT KAILASH
TIBET
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