Friday Featured Artist: Rich-Joseph Facun

A Q&A from yours truly, enjoy...

A special thanks to AltDaily's Julie Alvarado for providing me with unique and inquisitive questions. 

So long, Best of 2010? Welcome 2011.

Colors and textures bounce through the frame and I’m blessed to arrange some coherent order out of the bends in the light. Time moves on, seconds pass, I exhale, I dream, I inhale, I smile, I sigh, another notation has passed. 

I’m drifting again off into a poetry of music and sound. My eyes try to make something out of nothing, my heart intersects, the mind dissects. The tempo slows. 

At the edge of India I find primal rituals, at the birth of the Ganga I find that which can not be found, at home I am embraced by the arms of my youth and the eyes of my offspring, Beirut offers lonely ripped paper eyes of the abducted; not to be seen, in Satwa an organic blade of green festers optimism in a pessimistic mystic, Gemmayze gives me pink balloons and party hats, in the Emirates a lone boy dances to silence, his hands clasped, then opened, eventually melt, rearranging themselves and fall back to Earth’s light...

Days keep moving and time knows the bounds; its secrets are spoken in foreign languages while a cautious friend translates the unknown.

Today, winter yearns for an autumn day and spring for summer. 

Tomorrow was today - Today is tomorrow

Atlanta Photojournalism Seminar!

I woke up this morning to a pleasant surprise. Two images from my Darshana Ganga essay earned awards in this year's contest. I ended up winning a 1st and 2nd place in the pictorial category. Definitely a good way to start the day. Cheers. 

By the way, if you're looking for a great Christmas gift you can purchase a signed print of this image here. 

Darshana Ganga: In Print

My personal project Darshana Ganga made it into print a little over a week ago in the United Arab Emirates' M magazine. It was rewarding to see a selection of this work spread over six glossy pages. Thanks to photo editor Clint Mclean for initially picking the work up and M photo editor Rob Evans for following through and getting the images published. Cheers. 

Darshana Ganga: Continued

One of my ongoing personal projects is a look at the daily life, culture and heritage along the Ganges River. This sacred river runs over 1500 miles through India. The birth of the river starts in the Himalayas, flows until it reaches the plains in Haridwar, eventually breaks into a cluster of deltas north of Kolkata and finally finds rest in the Bay of Bengal.

This last trip I found myself in the Haridwar, an important pilgrimage city, Rishikesh, the yoga capital of the world and Devprayag, where two rivers converge to form the Ganga. 

Each trip to India never ceases to leave me saturated with a raw appreciation for the ancient culture that exists along the Ganga. 

Visit my website to see the updated essay. I wish I could share all of the outtakes from my last trip but as the saying goes "less is more."

Until next time...