Unesco World Tour

02/17/2025

"When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun"
- "The Second Coming" by William Butler Yeats

The Sadhus. They have come from every corner of India. Some, like the Naga Babas come from caves in the mountains. They are the fabled "holy men in the mountains" who live a life of monastic and naked asceticism, shrugging off the extreme cold of the Himalayas. They arrive to the Kumbh Mela, sometimes with nothing more than their weapons: a sword, a spear, a trident. For they are the traditional defenders of Hinduism.

At the Kumbh, they unite and reunite, some only seeing others since the last Kumbh. To us, they are other-worldly. Because they are. They live in a plane of existence that only few could understand or imagine. A life of deprivation and penance, yet exultant in their worship. If only I understood Hindi, Bengali, Marathi, Telegu, Tamil - I could download the centuries of wisdom that they were willing to share. But alas, no. The only thing I could take was their image, given freely with a simple nod after I put my camera down. They would walk away and disappear among the thousands - each with their own unique story.

02/09/2025

We would catch them at their most vulnerable - when they're bathing. Men, women, children of all shapes and ages would undress or change into drier clothing with absolutely no regard for the photographers (us) around them. It's as if we didn't even exist. Some would eventually look up and make eye contact, then immediately continue what they were doing. Because it didn't matter. What they were doing was more important, more meaningful.

There's a great line in the film "Pig" with Nicolas Cage, where he says, "We don’t get a lot of things to really care about." And that's kind of what this is - it's something to really care about.

Imagine you live in Mysore, India. It's a 2-day journey by train to Prayagraj (about the same distance as NYC to Denver). You walk to the train station because you cannot afford a taxi or a bus. You endure the crowded trains and the long arduous journey. On arrival, you will still need to walk to the Kumbh. Once you reach the Kumbh, you will need to brave even more crowded areas to get to the bathing sites, dip into the Ganga three times, perform the rituals, then start the journey back home. That's what people did from all over India. We know this because we meet them. And they were so excited to be there. Why? Because it's something they cared about. It's something important. It's something meaningful.

So when some as***le from Brooklyn (me) snaps a picture of you while you're trying to put on your underwear - who cares? You're at the Maha Kumbh, baby! 144!!!! You just bathed in the Ganga! You just washed away your sins! Har Har Mahadev!!!!

02/06/2025

Har Har Mahadev!

To describe the Maha Kumbh Mela as merely "profound" is an injustice. It was sublime. Never have I experienced devotion, spirituality and joy on such a deep level. It's only now, after a few weeks away from the experience that I have slightly begun to unpack and digest everything that happened.

Our group, led by .people.matter and his amazing guides ( ) walked us through an unimaginable landscape akin to Virgil leading Dante through the afterlife. This was Prayagraj - ancient seat of the Maha Kumbh Mela. My western sensibilities were assaulted in every way and it was only by letting go of any preconceived notions of "what makes sense" was I able to submit to what the Kumbh Mela could offer.

Our daily excursions into the Kumbh, away from the safety and familiarity of our luxurious tent accommodations was like leaving "the green zone" and "going in country". Plans would be made and quickly abandoned. Any given situation was, as Pie described it, "fluid". Climb over a fence, Get sucked into a crowd or even Fall back - were sometimes what the situation called for. It was in those moments that both and I realized that we bit off more than we could chew. But swallow it we did and we emerged unscathed but forever changed.

As the weeks go by, I will try and post more photos as I process the experience. In the meantime, please visit the pages of the outstanding photographers we were honored to travel with, for their unique perspective and glimpses of the Kumbh:

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08/07/2024

01/21/2024

Wandering the streets of Kyoto at night is like stepping into a dream. Empty alleys envelope you as you seemingly step back in time. Despite the crowds, I can't wait to come back to this city 🌌✨

11/26/2023

kyoto at night

11/14/2023

Miyajima ... Itsukushima Shrine.