The Searchers (Part II) 2006
in collaboration with Jessica Sucher
The portraits in The Searchers (Part II) are of Westerners who have taken ascetic vows in one of India’s varied religious traditions. These believers have considerably transformed their lives, and inhabit India no longer as visitors, but as converts to a religion, culture, and way of life. Some of these converts live in long established centers of study and spiritual practice and pursue degrees in Buddhist Philosophy or become sought after spiritual teachers and Gurus to Westerners interested in immersing themselves tin these traditions. Some live as ascetics in isolation and spend their lives pursuing an ancient spiritual practice. While others seem to just float around in a haze of ritual hash. Although this project began as a critique of this phenomena - India as a location for Western spiritual journeys (with all the historical, social and economic questions this activity summons up) - the majority of Western converts we encountered in India made us question our reductive assumptions.
