Worldviews: Ritual with Photographer David Katzenstein

Over the past 25 years, photographer David Katzenstein has traveled to five continents, and many islands in between, exploring the daily lives and communal rituals of diverse cultures. With the honesty of a documentary photographer and the eye of an artist, he freezes moments of revelatory experience and evokes their essential spirit. 

This body of work that he will be showing during this virtual event is a visual journey to lands distant and nearby led by a master traveler. Katzenstein has photographed Hindu ceremonies in rural India, Santeria rituals in Cuba, Zulu dancers in South Africa, and soldiers in Peru. He has witnessed Easter processions in Guatemala, Buddhist festivals in Bhutan, Islamic ceremonies in Egypt, Jewish worship in Israel, and shamanism in the South Pacific islands of Vanuatu. Katzenstein’s photographs, wherever they are made, celebrate the astonishing variety and essential unity of human life. 

Katzenstein is fascinated by the people he meets and deeply respectful of their ways. He neither judges nor heroicizes his subjects; instead, he searches intently for their souls. His camera can be confrontational or invisible, but he is always sensitive to subtleties of character and human relationships. Even his landscapes are spiritual explorations, placing the viewer in unknown lands.

This is part of our Community Offerings series of events led by community members. We hope you will join us for one or all of them!