arts 32 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY august 17-23, 2023 www.montereycountyweekly.com Photographer Craig Lovell has been nesting in Carmel Valley, where he has had a full-service studio—Eagle Visions—since 1981. Lovell has been not only a successful commercial photographer, but also, for his own and humanity’s sake, a lifelong documentarian of the Indigenous cultures of the Himalayas and Southeast Asia. He was first taken there 37 years ago by his wife, Christine Kolisch, who worked for UNICEF at the time. A photographer needs to be passionate about the subject, whatever they choose to shoot, according to Lovell, now 66 years old. “I lean towards Buddhism, I was interested in Asian culture and philosophy,” he says. “It’s just really interesting to me.” The result is hundreds of photos intimately documenting moments in daily life in places around the world that are off the mainstream path. Some of those photos are viewable locally in two exhibits. In addition to the Journey to the Mystic East in Unitarian Universalist Church of the Monterey Peninsula in Carmel (now on display until Sept. 24), the Marjorie Evans Gallery at Sunset Center will present Lovell’s Magic & Mystery in Latin America, starting Sept. 22, that also serves as a celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month. In other words, if you feel like a trip to ancient Mexico, Ecuador and Cuba, you can plan your visit to the Sunset Center; but if you want to see Indigenous Tibet, Nepal, Burma, India and Bali, act now. “My first trip was to South America and some of those images will be shown in the Magic & Mystery exhibit,” Lovell says. He recalls how he was walking through the countryside where the Otavalos, Indigenous people of northern Ecuador, lived. And he made a connection. “I just sat and talked with them.” How? “With my heart,” he says, almost laughing at the simplicity of that statement, but fully ready to make it nonetheless. “With respect and humanity, you get respect and humanity back. It’s just a feeling that you get,” he says. “That’s what many photographers who try to photograph people have problems with.” Lovell’s method is to spend time with his subjects in the most genuine way. If that includes dancing with them in a local celebration, so be it. That’s how he gets eyes that are open to be read, relaxed, windows to the soul—instead of an I don’t-want-to-bephotographed face. “Cultural events are always a good opportunity,” Lovell says about techniques to get interesting photos. In the festival setting, a photographer can be just an observer, no psychology required. But that’s not going to work with a sadhu, a holy person in Hinduism who has vowed to never sleep on the ground and sleeps on a hammock-like swing instead. The four sadhus who Lovell saw sitting on the road gave him their best portrait poses; he got them tea from a nearby tea stand. Many of the images he’s taken could not be captured today and are now part of the historical record. That’s due to the rapid global changes that—with health care, electricity and McDonald’s—homogenize world culture, wiping out languages and customs. A graduate of the now-closed Brooks Institute of Photography in Santa Barbara, Lovell photographs in both color and black and white. He chose about 25 prints out of his massive collection for the limited space of the Unitarian Church—there is a mountain monastery in Nepal, flowery spring in the Himalayas, as well as a Himalayan pony. Then we have portraits of Indigenous Khampa people in Tibet—the king, the queen and bathing at Tirta Empul Sacred Springs in Bali. All pieces are for sale; 20 percent of the sale price will be donated to the church. “In recent times, the Dalai Lamas and other teachers have brought Buddhism to the West for the benefit of all sentient beings,” Lovell wrote in the artist statement for Journey to the Mystic East, proceeding with the following quote from the 17th-century saint Padmasambhava: “‘When the iron bird flies and the horse run on wheels, the Tibetan people will be scarred like ants across the face of the Earth, and Dharman will come to the land of the red men.’ When the hippies traveled overland from Europe to India and Nepal, they encountered Hindu saints and brought back teachers who introduced yoga, meditation and mystical practices to the West.” But another saying that Lovell loves comes from a famous Westerner, Mark Twain: “Travel is fatal to bigotry, prejudice and narrow-mindedness.” Thanks to Lovell’s photos, we still have access to the endangered cultures of the Tibetan plateau who, just like in the case of the Uyghurs up north, are under threat from Beijing’s policies targeting their languages and customs. Thanks to Lovell’s photos, we can lay down our prejudices and expand our minds. Journey to The Mystic East is viewable from 9am-5pm weekdays and 10:30am-12:30pm Sundays until Sept. 24 (the last walk and talk with the artist happens at noon on Sunday, Sept. 24). Unitarian Universalist Church of the Monterey Peninsula, 490 Aguajito Road, Carmel. More information at eagle-visions.com. Magic & Mystery in Latin America opens at 5pm Friday, Sept. 22. Marjorie Evans Gallery, San Carlos Street at 9th Avenue, Carmel. 620-2048, sunsetcenter.org. Eagle-Eyed Journeys Photographer Craig Lovell has spent decades traveling the world, and documenting the diversity of beauty of cultures—some of which are now disappearing. By Agata Pop˛eda “Travel is fatal to bigotry and narrowmindedness.” Above: This photo of Craig Lovell was taken by his son Bodhi Garrett in Kham in Eastern Tibet, when they met some Buddhist monks on the road to Katak Monastery. Below: Two photos from the Journey to the Mystic East exhibit in the Unitarian Universalist Church in Carmel. Bodhi Garret Craig Lovell Craig Lovell
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