"Yoga has the ability to heal. Yoga has the ability to bring about peace. So the more people we can inspire to practice the happier and healthier this world will become. By taking yoga into the art world I hope we can inspire more people into yoga." Richard Pilnick, also known as the Yoga Photographer, shares his beautiful encounter with yoga and how it completely changed his life.
In 2008 I went to India, a journey that would shape my life. I was working in the fashion industry at the time, inspired by Richard Alvedon, Irving Penn and David Bailey. I decided to take some time out, get some perspective and ensure I was creating images from my heart and not shooting what I thought people wanted to see. An unconventional introduction to yoga ensued - little did I know that it would become such a huge part of my life. My first yoga session took place on a roof top in Jodhpur, the blue city, half an hour of Sun Salutations to the rising sun, followed by a ginger black tea philosophising about life and flying kites with the local kids - I was reading ‘the Kite Runner’ at the time, so I really felt like I was in Kabul…
Heading south to the small village, Gokarna, Karnataka - 3 days quickly turned into a month, captivated by the people, both local and foreigner, I decided to capture the essence of this beautiful space through the eyes of the people. I went into the village and managed to get all the supplies I needed to build a studio on the beach, 12 foot bamboo poles from our guest house, a hammock maker made me a 20x20 foot white sheet to diffuse the sunlight and a black sheet for negative fill, I acquired rice sacks to fill with sand to weigh everything down and rope and a sickle from the hardware store.
On the 2nd of January 2009 my alarm sounded at 05:30, although it wasn't actually needed, as I had not slept due to excitement. I dragged everything down to the beach and began building the studio. By about 07:00 there was a group of local lads all helping me finalise the structure, even though they had no idea what I was doing, or why - they were just so intrigued. But when we had finished and the camera came out, they were all fighting for a picture and exchanging clothes, ensuring they looked their best… I was shooting on a Hasselblad 500 at that time and shot around 35 rolls of film throughout the day, one guy even swam the length of the beach to see what was going on. But there was one picture that changed everything for me, now the poem has been written by the German Face Reader, Eric Standop, he is known as ‘Sad Eyes’. He waited patiently with his bags to present himself to me for a portrait, without language he did this with no knowledge of who I was or what I was doing, but we shared a moment together that transcended verbal communication.
My guardian angel
Captivated by this image, it was the first print I had done returning to London, followed by a moment of realisation - I was a portrait photographer, this is the journey I needed to take… I quit everything, spoke to all my clients and all the other photographers I was working for at the time and said I was leaving and ended up spending three and a half years living and working in Asia. Returning to Gokarna on numerous occasions in search of Sad Eyes, armed with this print, I would ask around, it’s a small local village where everyone knows everyone, yet no one knows who he is or where he is from.
He is my guardian angel, he presented himself to me for me to realise my destiny and purpose, to share the messages from around the world. Everyday I ask myself, was he really there…?
Looking back on the morning after my wedding, I was reflecting on my life up to that point, the work I had done, the pictures taken and my inspiration, which led me to a series I did with the Indian Yogi, Shiva Shankar, in the same village of Gokarna. Yoga… Yoga Photography… Returning to London I introduced myself to Cat Alip-Douglas and asked if we could shoot, I needed to shoot more Yoga if that was going to be the direction I would take, inspired by my portraiture, she gleefully accepted, this followed a portrait of Cat and her husband, Phil. I took to frames of the couple and knew they were wrong, they didn’t feel connected with the situation and the camera, so we moved everything around, I took one more picture - that picture ended up not only in the National Portrait Gallery in London, but also on a huge poster on the outside showcasing the Taylor Wessing Portrait Prize.
I was on the right path; I had a nod and a wink from the Universe.
I needed to change the image that is used to portray yoga. We all need to inspire people into this wonderful world of self-development and understanding, we need to honour the practice that is giving us so much. Bibi McGill aptly writes "We've turned yoga into the "look at me" selfie syndrome" - this is not yoga, this is not honest… We need to create content that is achievable and attainable, yes we will photograph beautiful one-handed handstand, but we will also be photographing upward dog just as beautifully, as it is pictures like this that will inspire people to practice for the first time. It is the one handed handstand that will inspire the advanced practitioner.
Let's make a change - together
So, We are creating a global resource of unique yoga photographs to inspire and honour the practice helping us on our journey in this life. We want to bring integrity back to the images portraying yoga - inspiring more people in to the world of yoga through photography.
Together with you, we need to raise £23,000 creating the self-sustaining business, yogaphotography.com. The revenue from online prints sales will enable us to continue to document the 1000’s of Asana out there, but we need to get started, we need to build a community with people that believe in us and our vision and believe Yoga is an integral part in transforming society today.
I spoke to John Scott about this project and why he wanted to be involved -
"Yoga is also art, and the body is a piece of art to be appreciated to admire its beauty and to perfect its beauty and take it to its unlimited potentiality. So initially I was taken out of my senses to being inspired by Derek [Ireland] and it was through Derek who gave me the key to go to Pattabhi Jois, Guruji became the one that turned that all around to say look within. So, see that beauty that you’re seeing outside and see if you can see that on the inside. And so for me, thats where the yoga really starts to go from the one where your mind is being drawn outward, maybe distracted by all the stimulus out there, the pratyahara is to know that the beauty exists out there only because of what comes from the inside. So then we are guided by our practice to look in…"
Sponsor the project
There are various tiers of sponsorship, from post cards, dedicated sun salutations, fine art prints & time shooting with Richard. Create your own fine art Asana pictures while helping to create this global resource. Please find packages below. Sponsor and bookings, please visit the website here!
- Book 1 or 2 days with Richard for 5 or 10 teachers/students to create a series of your very own Asana pictures. Each Teacher/student will have 1 ½ hours shooting time and receive 7 final retouched B&W images.
- £1,597 - 1 day Friends/studio digital package 5 Pax (£319.4 each)
- £2,584 - 2 days Friends/studio digital package 10 Pax. (£258.4 each)
- Order digital museum quality prints, the site will launching with over 250 images, Asanas & portraits, all of which are available for pre order at a reduced price of £55, multiple orders possible (each print £55, if you’d like 3, pledge £165) coupon codes will be sent out after site launch for you to order.
Get inspired
- Meet the yoga photographer - interview with Richard Pilnick.
- Yogis & yoginis - let's get lost together, by Simon Krohn, yoga teacher with an MA in philosophy.
- Accessible yoga for everyone, by Sam Rudra Swartz, ordained interfaith minister & yoga teacher.
