India

India is a land of contradictions. It is the world's most densely populated country and the tiger's last remaining natural habitat, deeply traditional and intensely modern. A land of more than a billion people, eighteen official languages, and every religion, India defies categorization. In India photographer Olivier Follmi captures a land where tradition and modernity co-exist - the India of the cellphone and the sacred cow. Yet Follmi looks beyond the noise, chaos, and sensory overload of the Indian street to examine deeper truths about the people and their culture. His photos convey beauty and stillness, expressing a philosophy and an approach to life radically different from the West's. Follmi's work includes portraits of people of all classes - farmers and potters, dancers and musicians, parents and children - and probes human interactions with other animals, including cows, monkeys, elephants. He documents the Indian love of ornament, from women's painstaking adornments to the decorated cattle shelters in the humblest of villages. Olivier Follmi first went to India in the 1970s.
Working as a guide, leading tourists on Himalayan treks, and photographing India and its people for more than twenty-five years, he came to know the country intimately. He and his wife divide their lives between the Alps and the Himalayas and have written more than 15 books, including Abrams' Buddhist Himalayas. Follmi is the official photographer of the Dalai Lama and recipient of the World Press award.