Yogi Portrait Kolkata: How I Photographed a Yogi in India
Yogi portrait in Kolkata by the banks of the Hooghly River, India.
I met and photographed this yogi in India in the grounds of the Daksineswar Kali Temple, on the outskirts of Kolkata. Also known as Dakshineswar Kalibaria, the temple is located on the eastern bank of the River Hooghly directly adjacent to the Vivekananda Setu (Bally Bridge) and the newer Nivedita Setu.
Kolkata is a city steeped in history with a rich and vibrant culture. Photographing this quiet and gentle yogi was just one of many adventures that came my way while exploring this deeply spiritual city.
He was a gentle soul and I’m really happy the yogi allowed me to approach and, after gaining permission, to make his portrait.
The scene itself was mostly devoid of color, except for the background shrubs which were dark green and not particularly inspiring.
Sunlit greens often display a yellow/green hue and are quite emotionally uplighting. But green foliage, in deep shade, can appear lifeless and uninspiring.
Next time you’re out and about, on a bright sunny day, make a point of looking closely at areas of sunlit grass compared to heavily shaded grass.
You could then conduct a little experiment, which I’II outline as follows:
Consider how you feel about what you see. If it’s really hot than the shaded grass might well feel cool and enticing.
Try to get past such notions of personal comfort and notice how much more life and energy seems to be present in the sunlit grass.
Make separate photos of the sunlit and shaded areas of grass. When you do so photograph each scene with your camera set to the Daylight/Sunny and Auto white balances. That’s a total of four photos, right?
As a photographer, there’s lessons and conclusions that should come out of this particular experiment.
What you see doesn’t govern your life. How you feel about what you see does.
Reality is, therefore, a construct based upon how we perceive our surroundings and the events and interactions occurring within them.
There’s a very definite disconnect between the way we perceive the world and the way the camera records it.
This is the greatest challenge of photography and one that must be overcome if the photos you make are going to move from snapshot into art.
Anyway, given the lack of color within the scene, it seemed obvious that my photo of the yogi, resting in the grounds of the Dakshineswar Kalibari, needed to be rendered into black and white.
By removing color from the image the light, which is crucial to the success of this photo, becomes an even more dominant element in the composition.
I might add a sepia tone to further enhance the emotive quality of the image.
I think the nostalgic feel associated with a sepia tone would be appropriate to the sense of calm and serenity the yogi emanated at the time I made his photo.
Photographing an Enlightened Yogi
Photography is all about light, but it was fading fast and I had to move quickly to make the photo.
The yogi was already sitting, so it was a simple matter to ask him to turn so that the low angled sun illuminated his eyes and the top part of his face.
Can you see how the line that separates light from dark is basically following the line of his beard.
Composition is important to me. It underpins the structure of all the photos I create.
It’s important to note that a camera with a large, bright and high resolution viewfinder makes it easier to identify important elements of composition within the frame.
By making subtle movements of the camera it’s then easier to control the placement of important compositional elements, such as light, color, tone, texture and balance within the photo.
So much of this control is lost when making photos with a mobile phone or a camera without a dedicated viewfinder, particularly outdoors under bright light.
If you don’t put your eye right into your camera’s viewfinder it can be really hard to judge the exact moment when the subject’s eyes and expression are optimal for the result you’re seeking.
I’m so glad I learned this basic, yet fundamentally important technique so long ago.
However, even with the aid of a large and bright camera viewfinder, it's still possible to miss important details.
As he seemed shy by nature I made the photo of the yogi quickly and moved on.
It wasn't until I processed the image back in my studio in Australia that I realized what, at first, looked like a tail coming out from his lower back.
Closer examination showed it to be a very, very long ponytail.
Incredible!
What Is A Yogi?
A yogi is the name given to a wandering religious ascetic in India.
Now, if you’re looking for a more definitive yogi definition you might be in trouble.
In fact there are a number of different meanings for the word yogi across Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Pali, Sanskrit and Marathi.
Here’s just a few:
A transcendentalist or advanced practitioner of yoga
One who practices meditation
One of the 108 names of Krishna, the Supreme Master
While these simple descriptions may be useful to folks who aren’t followers of Hindu, Buddhist or Jain doctrines, I hope this post will help bring a greater understanding of what it is to be a yogi.
After all, there’s nothing better than a personal interaction and the story that surrounds it. Such dialogues are at the very heart of the travel experience.
The Life of a Yogi in India
While some yogis live in ashrams and work as yoga and spiritual teachers, known as swamis, most yogis in India live a relatively nomadic, less structured and more nature based lifestyle.
Yogis believe that substantial benefits to health and spiritual awareness are derived by living in harmony with nature.
What’s more, some yogis aren’t associated directly with any particular religion.
During the summer months, many yogis travel to the Himalayan region to live above the tree line. They do so to be closer to Shiva, the god of mountains and the original yogi.
It's a hard life, without the security of a roof over your head and the regularity of meals so many of us have come to expect in our own lives.
While the life of a religious ascetic may not be for you, or for me, we can all learn from the life of the yogi.
There's a lot to be said for living a minimalist life, closer to nature and with less possessions.
How far we take that is up to each of us to determine. But I’d wager that less time immersed in technology and more time spent outside, in fresh air and natural light, is a significant step on the road to our own enlightenment.
Over the years I’ve significantly reduced the amount of stuff I have and expect to reduce what remains to about 20 percent of what I once had. And I expect to further reduce that by half within the next few years.
It’s just so liberating to give away, sell, recycle and, where necessary, throw away stuff you no longer use or need. Every time I buy something I make sure I get rid of at least twice as much stuff.
I’ve just sold an Epiphone Les Paul guitar, and hope to sell a Fender Amp and a Mini Maton Johnny Diesel special edition acoustic guitar over coming weeks.
On a similar vein, you might enjoy a post I wrote titled Follow Your Bliss: How to be Happy by Living a Creative Life
Ideas explored in that post are important motivators in my own life and are central to the fundamental motivations that underpin the Travel Photography Guru website.
Garish colors depicting Hindu deities on a shrine in Chennai, India.
Where To Find Yogis in India
Yogis can be found all around India.
I remember speaking with a yogi, way back in 1988, as I witnessed the lighting of a funeral pyre on a cremation ghat by the banks of the River Ganges in Varanasi.
One of the holiest and oldest inhabited cities on our planet, Varanasi is a fully immersive, albeit somewhat chaotic experience for the traveller. And it’s certainly one of those places in India where the human condition is front and centre.
One city I haven’t yet visited is Prayagraj.
Formally known as Allahabad, the city of Prayagraj is located at the confluence of the Ganges, Yamuna and Sarasvati Saraswati rivers.
It’s in Prayagraj where the world famous Kumbh Mela festival is held.
150 million pilgrims from all over India and around the world come to bathe in the holy Ganges during the festival.
Believe me there’ll be no shortage of yogis to see and photograph at the Kumbh Mela festival.
In Search of a Himalayan Yogi
If, like the Beatles, you find yourself spending time in Rishikesh, in the foothills of the Himalayas, you’ll likely meet plenty of yogis.
Considered by many to be the yoga capital of India, many pilgrims travel to Rishikesh to immerse themselves in guided yoga practice and spiritual teachings.
In fact Rishikesh is where yoga, tantra and mantras were said to have been created.
How to Approach Yogis in India
No doubt, due to the fact that they live relatively secluded lives, yogis often seem shy and, sometimes, aloof. Their long hair, minimal clothing and mystical spiritual practices casts a sense of mystery over their identity.
Certainly, as a traveller from abroad, it was a fascinating experience to have meet and photographed a yogi. I’m only sorry there was no common language between us.
I have met people who dress in a similar fashion at popular tourist sites in India. They often have excellent English and can be very aggressive asking for money.
I’ve wondered if these people were legitimate ascetics, or just pushy beggars.
However, on this particular day, I had no doubt I’d met a real life, totally authentic yogi. It was a privilege to have done so and I was so happy to have had the opportunity to make his photo.
As a tourist you'll most likely observe yogis around temples and spiritually powerful places in nature, like rivers and caves.
My view is that you should never be worried about approaching someone so different to yourself.
Trust your intuition and see where it takes you. You might come away with a positive experience or, otherwise, one you might wish you’d never had.
Either way, it’ll be something to learn from and, from my point of view, it’s a risk well worth taking.
The key is to approach strangers with motivations that are pure and well-meaning. Be clear about the kind of photo you want to make and why it is you want to create it.
It’s this clarity of purpose that provides a moral base from which you’ll be able to approach the interaction, with the level of confidence required to gain the subject’s permission and then to go about making a successful photo.
When it comes to approaching strangers here’s an extra tip, from my own experience, you might benefit from.
I overcame my own shyness as a photographer by telling myself that I’m at least as interesting or exotic to the people I’d like to photograph as they are to me.
And that’s just as true whether you’re in Kuwait City, Kansas City or Kolkata.
This simple change in mindset is very empowering and may be all that’s needed to motivate you to take action and create beautiful life affirming photos.
Clearly, it’s important that your intentions are pure. After all, you’re not there to invade anyone’s space or to take something away from them.
Rather, by making the photo you’re participating in the act of creation and, in doing so, bringing some positivity into the world.
And who’s to say they won’t benefit from the interaction. From my point of view, it’s an important part of the process. I don’t see making photos of strangers as transactional.
I see it as a mutually beneficial interaction that, when undertaken successfully, will produce one or more images that will touch the hearts of people all over the world.
Needless to say, it’s important how you go about making your photos.
As long as you’re able to photograph quickly, and without making your subject uncomfortable or overly self conscious, you shouldn’t be concerned.
That’s precisely how I went about making the photo of the yogi at the very top of this post, and a key reason underpinning the success of the picture.
New India Photography Collection
If you haven't yet seen it, just click on the following link to see my new India Photography Collection.
Where possible, I recommend looking at these images on a tablet or, better still, a large screen monitor.
You’ll see lots of Kolkata street photography and portraiture from Kolkata and Chennai in this collection.
See the Yogi, Nice And Big
By the way the same is true for any of the photos appearing on my blog, including the photo of the yogi at the very top of this post.
I display photos on this site as large as I can, but I also have to allow space for text and extra information within each blog post.
Clicking on any of the images in my regular blog posts will enlarge that image onto a clean, black screen where it can be viewed large and without interference.
I recommend you do this whenever you see a photo that you like.
I’ve photographed priests, nuns and monks from a variety of religions around the world. But it was during this trip to Kolkata in India that I had the good fortune to meet and photograph a yogi.
I hope you get to experience such a wonderful opportunity for yourself, and that the photos you make provide you with great and long lasting memories of your time in India.
