Eric Meola: India

The last few posts of 2008 on The Travel Photographer have been about misery...massacre in Gaza, circumcision of a sweet 7 year-old Kurdish girl, an orthopedic rehabilitation program in Afghanistan...so it's about time for a joyous post, and what better way to usher in 2009 than with the colorful (really colorful!) imagery of Eric Meola, and his new book, India: In Words & Images. My favorite photographic destination and blinding color...what a treat!

I haven't yet seen the book in its real format, but from the images on its website, it's immediately obvious that Eric Meola's book is suffused with light and color. The photographer's journeys took him from the Himalayas and monasteries in India's north to the temples of Tamil Nadu in the south, from the color and pageantry of Rajasthan in the west to the tea plantations of Darjeeling in the east.

Eric is a self-taught photographer, who opened his own studio in 1971. For over twenty years he has done editorial and corporate photography for major clients and agencies. His photographs are included in the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C., the International Center of Photography in New York, the George Eastman House and the Museum of Modern Art in Munich.

Give yourself a break from the drabness of current events, the venality of international and local politics, the horrors of religious racism and tribalism, etc and take a peek at India: In Words & Images...2009 may be sunnier!