B.V.S.P school and Making of Lord Ganesha

Hello Readers,

Here are some images on the making of Lord Ganesha followed by a video of Lord Ganesha set. The video was filmed by Roberto Farruggio who shadowed me in India and it was edited by Lily Huang. All images behind the scenes below were also photographed by Roberto Farruggio and by a few are by Varun Sathe, a talented student of Bhartiya Vidya Peeth School of Photography.

My New York Times Article links specifically mentions Bhartiya Vidya Peeth school of Photography in Pune. Also known as B.V.S.P.
B.V.S.P's students and instructors were pro active in taking part in the Darshan project, Ashish Gurbani formerly assisted me on the making of Maa Laxmi, and Mukul Anand, Varun Sathe, Urmit Talavia and Cheryl Zorini Bhorania to name a few were frequenters on the set working towards making Darshan a success.

B.V.S.P's role in this process was integral and they were true agents of art. By offering their school's resources, their premises and equipment  as well as their students, BVSP truly promoted collaboration. I would take a moment to look into the school and what it offers. Rajan Chaughule, president and dean at B.V.S.P in specific was a facilitator in every way he could be for the project. I also want to specifically thank Siddhartha Mudaliar, an instructor at B.V.S.P whose extra set of eyes on the set were much appreciated.



















[vimeo http://vimeo.com/32889841]

Darshan's new images on New York Times, Lens Blog

Please enjoy the article that was published today on New York Times, Lens Blog. This article was written by Niko Koppel and published by james Estrin. A big thank you to both of the. And again a special thank you to my backers for the support.

Darshan Talk at SVA tonight!

Dear Friends,
Owing to the successful fundraising of my project Darshan, I was in India September through October creating and producing the next four images in the series. I'd to invite you to my talk at the School of Visual Arts which will highlight some new footage and images shot in India.

Date: Wednesday, November 2nd, 2011
Time: 7 pm
Venue: 136 West 21st street, Room 418 F

My friend and shadow

I am happy to announce my collaboration with Roberto Farruggio who is a New York based sicilian filmmaker and has been shadowing me for Darshan for the last several weeks. Roberto and I met in spain during "Espacio Nudage" a festival we were both invited and selected to attend in Spain this January. Roberto assisted me for a job for AOL in Madrid and we soon knew we would get along like peas in a pod. This friendship grew and has led him following my recent project Darshan all the way to India.

Darshan my most recent pride and joy, was a project that got successfully funded on Kickstarter a month ago. I have just freshly returned from Mumbai where I was deep into production creating the next four images in this series of 9. I just wanted to share Roberto's work with you and say that many of my behind the scenes stills and movies to come, will be owing to his ardent following. Below is a picture of him in india with me capturing footage for Darshan.



Here is a quick sample of Roberto's work below but I encourage you to take a look at his style and imagery on his website.



Please keep tuned to some incredible production stills of how Darshan was manufactured and touched by many people's hard and ardent work on sets.

Lord Ganesha!

While i've been silent on the social networks Its been a whirlwind for the last 20 days. I have much to catch you all up on! But here is how my trip kicked off.

I arrived a day before the Ganesh festival ended. Ganesh Chaturthi is a very celebrated festival in India and particularly Mumbai. This timing was intentional.
My trip is sandwiched between Ganesha Chaturthi and Navratri which is the Durga Festival. Inspirations of these idols surround the city with lights, festivities and tons of artistic inspiration. Painters and sculptors who have done this for years shine during this time.

[caption id="attachment_3640" align="alignleft" width="450" caption="Ganesh Chaturti in Pune - Shot by Urmit "][/caption]

Above is an image shot by a student and Camera assistant Urmit. This is a scene from the Ganesha idol being carried down the streets to be immersed into water. The idol lord Ganesha is placed in a decorated temple on the first day of this festival and then worshipped for days until it's immersed in the waters only to return the following year. Here are some shots from the Ganesha Idol that was in our home in Mumbai.

[caption id="attachment_3654" align="alignleft" width="450" caption="The 2011 Ganesha idol at the Sharma residence"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_3655" align="alignleft" width="450" caption="Mom and dad praying before the immerse the idol ta the beach"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_3658" align="alignleft" width="450" caption="Dad lights the fire using camphor at a very windy Versova beach"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_3661" align="alignleft" width="450" caption="Children rejoice as they sing hymns of Lord Ganesha"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_3663" align="alignleft" width="450" caption="Taking the idol away for immersion on the last day of Ganesha Festival."][/caption]

Streets gets jammed and traffic packed as people navigate to the shores with idols that fit in your palms to a few floors high. It's quite the sight! It had been ten years since I had celebrated this festival with my parents and brother. I was glad to be home.

Darshan: Photographic Series on Indian Deities

I would like to Introduce you to my new project. It's called Darshan and I am trying to reach a targeted goal with this series. Please view the video and visit this link if you feel connected to the concept. If you would like to spread the word on it here is a short link http://t.co/wzrcaP6

[vimeo http://www.vimeo.com/25732686 w=400&h=225]

Darshan from Manjari Sharma on Vimeo.

Vogue, India Tearsheets

Vandana Bhatia and Maheep Kapoor are both celebrities in their own right. Maheep is a fantastic jewelry designer based in Mumbai and Vandana is a fashion designer based in Dubai. I got the chance to photograph both of them for Vogue India. Here are a few tear-sheets that were just sent to me. In addition Vandana and I were having too much fun and continued to shoot some shots at a personal level on the 4x5, attaching a few of those extras I enjoyed from our extended shoot as well.

HSBC Billboards hit India

Talk about Indians outsourcing Indians from America. I shot for an agency in mumbai, client was HSBC. The entire shoot was watched on skype/gchat and aim. The shoot involved building of a humungo Brazilian flag needed to be constructed for it and the all too talented Jon Nazareth came to the production rescue.



A flag was built the models lined up like ducks in a row and the shoot was memorable. With 10 agency cats + clients pulling an all night'er in India our shoot was on time with a happy and content crew and photog. Here are some fun out takes from the shoot.






So here are the Billboards.

Madrid, Spain

On the sand dunes of Sam

In Jaisalmer, Rajasthan, these two camel rider's obliged me and let me make some images. Here is my favorite one from that session.

On my mind

Thomas Albdorf

Thomas Holton

Kwashima Kotori

Jason Nocito

Sam Comen

Gautier Pellegrin

Kara Brodesgella

Jake Stangel

Vince Contarino

Elinor Caruchi


Amaury Da Cunha

DoDo Jin Ming

Igasi Cunill

Christopher Dibble

Yan Copelli

David Mascha

Dalton Rooney

Chris Frazer Smith

Lauren Treece

Amaury da Cunha

Yuki Onodera

Roger Ballen