Sacred Geography: Tibet and Himalaya Photographs

Photographed by David Zurick
Supported by Eugene Lang College and the Rubin Foundation

Monday, Mar. 31st to Wednesday, Apr. 16th
65 W. 11th St., 3rd Fl., Skybridge

David Zurick’s Sacred Geography exhibition draws from his decades of experience as a geographer, photographer, and explorer of the Himalaya, with twenty large black and white photographs of divine places undergoing change. The images featured in this exhibition are drawn from his new book Land of Pure Vision, and cover the full geographical reach of Tibet and the Himalaya.  It features many iconic natural places, such as the Source of the Ganges and sacred Mount Kailash, as well as numerous cultural sites including pilgrimage routes and famed sacred architectures.  A visual evocation of holy places, the Sacred Geography exhibition portrays a world of mystery, magic, and beauty, where the human spirit is in synchronicity with natural forces while it also addresses the inevitability of landscape change. Modern intrusions threaten the visual character of some sacred sites, but such transformations do not necessarily imperil their cultural role, suggesting that change and dissolution—hallmarks of local religious belief—may apply equally to the human consciousness and to the landscape.

Bio: David Zurick left home in 1975 to journey on the Overland Trail from Europe to Asia and hasn’t looked back. He completed his PhD in Geography at the University of Hawaii and East-West Center, Honolulu, and has written extensively about Asia and the Pacific, with a special focus on the Himalaya region. His writing and photography have won numerous awards, including the National Outdoor Book Award in 2006 for Illustrated Atlas of the Himalaya and the “Mt Everest Award” in 2009 for his Himalaya studies. The subject of much of his writing and photography is the contemporary cultural landscape.