The Nechung Medium and Dog, Dharamsala, India, 1979Photograph (c) Nicholas Vreeland
Q: The Oskar Barnack Room contains five very large color portraits from the 1970’s that you shot with a 5×7 camera. Can you tell us something about your experience with the large format?
A: I went to India with an old wooden 5×7 view camera and a lot of sheets of black and white film. A friend insisted that I take along some color sheets as well. At each sitting, I’d expose a sheet or two of color and the color turned out to be magnificent. Shooting in large format established a very different rapport between my subjects and myself. I was photographing some of the greatest living Tibetan Buddhist masters. The slow formal quality of the view camera process helped me to photograph them respectfully.– from the LEICA CAMERA BLOG Interview
Nicholas Vreeland and Elizabeth Avedon, Bodh Gaya, India, 1985Photograph (c) All Rights Reserved
"In terms of my work as a monk-photographer, I feel that I’m photographing the extraordinary world in which I live, whether I’m in New York City, in my teacher’s home in New Jersey, my monastery India or in Tibet." – from the LEICA CAMERA BLOG Interview
Vreeland on the way to his Leica Gallery exhibition, NYC, 2011.Photograph (c) Elizabeth Paul
Self Portrait, Rato Monastery, IndiaPhotograph (c) Nicholas Vreeland
Q: ...your images transcend those of a typical travel photographer: they have a dimension, a spiritual dimension, and a sense of congruity because they represent the two parts of your life that are tied together?
A: They are two sides of my life that have begun to be brought into harmony with each other. Many years ago, I didn’t feel they were congruent. In fact, initially I didn’t even have a camera in the monastery. And when I was given one, I kept it locked in “Pandora’s box."– from the LEICA CAMERA BLOG Interview
More about Vreeland's exhibition Return to the Roof of the World
on La Lettre de la Photographie
on La Lettre de la Photographie
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