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RAVEL
the wall-relief representing Mount Shatrunjaya, it took me several days to find the perfect light for this picture - which lasts for five minutes only.
NO PAIN. NO JAIN
One of the basic problems of every photographer is that the sun is never waiting for them - you just have to be at the right place at the right time! Therefore, my whole photographic documentation of Ranakpur is based on a quite precise shooting-plan 1 set up, using a detailed ground plan of the temple on which I marked most of my angles and the correspondent approximate timing. Sometimes, my work had quite a meditative character. Especially when worshippers were chanting during the evening arti, the temple was filled with the beats of the kettle drums and the clangs of the bells and cymbals, or when only the tiny bells tied to the flag-staffs atop of the spires were lightly swinging in the wind.
Photographer THOMAS DIX captures temples despite a shoestring budget because of his deep inner passion for Jain architecture.
The temple management granted me permission to photograph inside the temple in the mornings - a rare opportunity. Now I could work for the next seven days from sunrise to sunset on the documentation of this jewel in marble, counting in the end more than 150 photographs. During the regular dinnertime I was still photographing in the temple, therefore for one week I was obliged to have my daily thali in the nearby guesthouse. Photographing
In Mount Abu I concentrated more on the intricately carved ceilings and domes. But this meant mostly shooting from the quite tiring frog-eyed view. And once again, when entering the
y first meeting with Jainism and its stunning architecture came in 1991, when visiting
Ranakpur for the first time. Travelling by public bus all the way from Udaipur, I arrived after a very nice ride through the Aravallis, offering some breathtaking panorama views getting closer to Ranakpur. Seeing the impressive exterior of Dharna Vihara for the very first time has been a really great moment for me and I was deeply impressed by its dimensions. When finally standing in the light-flooded domed halls, I was totally overwhelmed by all this unbelievable beauty. With the photo permission granted by the temple manager, I was able to take the first photos of Dharna Vihara with my heavy and bulky large-size 4x5" field camera. I must have arrived during some special festival as the whole western facade had been illuminated by thousands of little coloured lights and in an adjoining tent I listened to songs performed by monks, worshippers and pilgrims. This spiritual atmosphere really touched me and in addition to my visual impressions I knew I had to return to this unique place once again for documenting Ranakpur in all its magnificent beauty.
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The following year, I showed some prints of the photographs to some priests I had met last time. One elder priest was so overwhelmed by the captured beauty of Ranakpur that he said with tears in his eyes, "I worship now your picture." What an unexpected appreciation of my work!
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