Month: July 2009

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Terri Gold World Imagery

“Some people say, “What does it matter if Tribal cultures fade away.” The answer is simple. When asked the meaning of being human, all the diverse cultures of the world respond with 10,000 different voices.” – Wade Davis

I  want to tell the stories of many diverse cultures.  My goal is to explore our cross-cultural truths; the importance of family, community and ritual and the amazing diversity of its expression.  I’m going to begin sharing some of my tribal adventures here with the Tibetan Festivals in Kham..  Making the journey and taking the picture, is only the first step for me. In the traditional darkroom, I was a lith printer which was like a dance in the darkroom… no two prints ever came out the same. I have studied and taught many alternative processes i.e.:  infrared digital and film, hand painting, Polaroid transfers and more. Now, I recreate these effects in the digital darkroom and find it equally creative and challenging.

So the summer festivals begin on the rooftop of the world in Kham which in southwest China and Tibet.

Racing with the Wind

Women Of Kham

For Slideshow of more Festival Imagery: click here

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Garden Portraits

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The next day we returned for lunch and created  some  portraits in the gardens. This beautiful garden was down a hidden lane one would never easily stumble on. Always good to be open to surprises when traveling or  more importantly open to creating them. My quote for today from the Analects of Confucius

“Practice meandering towards the center of every place.”

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California Dreaming

One of my favorite places in the US is Northern California. Some of the best people I know live there and the dramatic natural beauty soothes the eye and the soul. I traveled to San Francisco, then on to Berkeley, through the Marin headlands and coastline, into the wine country and spent July 4th hanging over the Pacific Ocean in Bolinas.   All the gardens were at their early summer prime, dahlias the size of trees with a backdrop of blues skies and often surrounded by towering redwoods with great shafts of light pouring through. After weeks of rain in NY it was wonderful. The first event was Sean and Nishas wedding in a beautiful home and garden in Sebastopol with orange nasturtiums blooming and a Bocce ball court and with twinkling lights wrapped around the trees. A wonderful- unique- heartfelt ceremony with a mixture of traditions- Hindu -Christian and Jewish. There were beautifully written vows , a special rose ceremony and guests from Malaysia, Turkey, London, Germany, Peru. The party was filled with musicians and live music and with love. nisha c flowbnisha sean rose-b

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Shooting many of the images with my digital infrared camera-it is always one of my favorites.It adds to the magic and mystery of a  celebration. It needs extensive color calibration and work in the digital darkroom but then I feel most images do. I do all the things in the digital darkroom I used  to do in the traditional darkroom.