The strange lives of the wandering sadhus, some of the holy men of the hindu religion, have always been a touch baffling to me. Maybe it’s the pail of rice, the pail made suspiciously the same from one sadhu to the next as if there were a “pail factory” somewhere in India importing the things. Maybe it’s the body paint…the dreds…the ability to hold up 30 kilos with the ol’ you-know-what. Whatever the reason, they photograph pretty well, and as they insist on a form of payment for the picture-taking, sure, why not shell out a whopping 40 cents per portrait?
So I just set up on one end of the Pashupatinath Temple (the holiest Hindu structure in Nepal) and gave them and myself what we all wanted…a free-for-all portrait session. Backing me up was my trusty 17-year-old assistant Hunter from L.A. (aka “The Biebs) whom I had wrangled from his vacation to give advice and carry my tripod.
Once you start offering 30 rupees per portrait, the word seems to miraculously travel through the Temple/holy man community as if they were all on twitter #sadhuportraits…they start coming to you. Genious. Here are a few of the selects. Enjoy.
"Sadhu I" Pashupatinath Temple, Kathmandu, Nepal. ©JoelAddams.com
"Sadhu II" Pashupatinath Temple, Kathmandu, Nepal. ©JoelAddams.com
"Sadhu III" Pashupatinath Temple, Kathmandu, Nepal. ©JoelAddams.com
"Sadhu Reading" Pashupatinath Temple, Kathmandu, Nepal. ©JoelAddams.com
"Sadhu IV" Pashupatinath Temple, Kathmandu, Nepal. ©JoelAddams.com
"Sadhu V" Pashupatinath Temple, Kathmandu, Nepal. ©JoelAddams.com
"Sadhu VI" Pashupatinath Temple, Kathmandu, Nepal. ©JoelAddams.com
"Sadhu VII" Pashupatinath Temple, Kathmandu, Nepal. ©JoelAddams.com
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BTW: some might disagree with the practice of something paying models, but in fact, this is the norm in developed countries as long as the end use is NOT journalism, which can have no payment to subjects. As these were personal portraits, black and white prints for sale, I should have compensated them to a reasonable market value.
Such beautiful emotive portraits. They are truly captivating.
Nice
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