Who Says Who I Am? ~ I Am You! – Portraiture From Depy Spyratos

THE FACES I SO LOVE TO PHOTOGRAPH IN PUSHKAR – 2013

I look so much forward to this one week in Pushkar during the Camel Fair. Waking up early and leaving the hotel room before 7am so as to mingle with the colourful pilgrims arriving in town fills me with excitement and anticipation similar to the feelings when going out for an early morning safari drive in Africa. What will the photo session bring, what new, amazing images ? I think that being a woman photographer helps me a lot. The women open up to me and and, as I mingle with them, they, too, sense my excitement and give me their best smile and acceptance .. the men are happy to be photographed by a woman!! I NEVER give money for a photo as I believe that then the ‘natural’ look is gone and the money exchange destroys everything. Instead, I try to give out as many prints as I can…last time, I printed over 200 photos and distributed them to as many of my models as I could!!

Depy – Nov. 2013

…

Depy has kindly allowed me to post a few of her wonderful portrait photos from this year’s collection.. I have known Depy for many years, we are old Sai devotees from long ago. We share a common interest in photography and spiritual pursuits.

…

SAY I AM YOU

I am dust particles in sunlight.     
I am the round sun.

To the bits of dust I say, Stay.
To the sun, Keep moving.

I am morning mist,
and the breathing of evening.

I am wind in the top of a grove,
and surf on the cliff.

Mast, rudder, helmsman, and keel,
I am also the coral reef they founder on.

I am a tree with a trained parrot in its branches.
Silence, thought, and voice.

The musical air coming through a flute,
a spark of a stone, a flickering

in metal. Both candle,
and the moth crazy around it.

Rose, and the nightingale
lost in the fragrance.

I am all orders of being, the circling galaxy,
the evolutionary intelligence, the lift,

and the falling away. What is,
and what isn’t. You who know

Jelaluddin, You the one
in all, say who

I am. Say I
am You.

~Rumi

Sole ownership of photos – Depy Spyratos.