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Exhibition of Annelies Rigter at the De Melkweg
openinghours Melkweg Gallery:
wednesday through sunday from 13:00 - 20:00 uur
entrance at the Melkweg café-restaurant, Marnixstraat 409.Amsterdam, July 9th - August 29th 2004
>> click here to see the pictures at the exhibition<<
One of the largest religious festivals on earth is the Kumb Mela-festival, which happens once in every 12 years on the banks of the holy river Ganges. It’s not just the largest festival but also the greatest gathering of people on earth. Millions of pilgrims stay on huge tent -sites, which are put up for this event.
By taking a bath in the holy river Ganges they cleanse themselves of sins and come closer to redemption in the circle of birth and rebirth. For advice and spiritual guidance they go to Saddhu’s – the holy men who castigate themselves in the most bizarre manners. The Kumb Mela is a great exuberant festival with an unimaginable multiple mixture of music, costumes and ecstasy. An infinite scale of fairlike attractions: Fortune-tellers - dwarfs – giants – and holy men who atone for their sins in many extraordinary ways. Wild Naga’s – naked ascetics who left their hermitage-cell – shaved from head to toe – are swaying with swords and spears.
For western photographers and film crews it is often impossible to work in this situation. But
Annelies Rigter was invited by a guru to put up her tent in his ashram. She could work there as a photographer for more then a month.
The work of Annelies Rigter was published in many national and international magazines. Besides children and family portraits she makes travel reports and documentaries on far away countries and cultures. She loves dynamic and unexpected situations that appear on her journeys. “One day you drink tea with the Tuaregs in the great desert of Yemen and the next day you stay in the palace of a Maharaja in India”. It’s the playful and plentiful chance of getting into another situation and culture, which makes her work absolutely fascinating for her.
Annelies Rigter’s work was exhibited and published many times. Some of her work is in the collection of The Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. The famous picture of the bathing Saddhu’s on the stairs of the Ganges is purchased by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.>>click here to see the pictures at the exhibition<<
Each of these photographs can be ordered via this website, in any desired size. The photographs have been completed on Kodak ENDURA Metallic paper. For further information you can either call me or e-mail me.
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