Photographing the Part of Buddhism that Can't Be Seen

After a career spent photographing world conflicts and disasters, photographer David Butow decided to turn his camera on a much more still – and elusive – subject: Buddhism.

As with other sacred and religious practices, he knew that there would be a great deal of lush and colorful visual material. But his focus and challenge was to try to photograph the interior, hidden spiritual experience. How do you photograph something that is not visible?

Ultimately, his year-long journey brought him to 10 countries, including Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Japan, Cambodia and India. 

To see the New York Times article and some of the photos from this journey, click here. 

Image: Michelle Badash

“Among the core concepts of Buddhism is the idea of understanding your individual experience of living and the way that you are connected to other people.  As a photographer, you observe your subject, try to become connected and then capture that in a single moment.”
--David Butow

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Coaxing Art Out of Recycled Metal in Haiti

From the Smithsonian Channel: "Symbols of Haitian voodoo, nature and Christianity are cut and pounded into oil drums as Haiti's artists transform mundane objects into remarkable art."

Click on the image (left) to watch a short video of the artworks that are being created from all types of recycled metal. 

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Egypt's Music Revolution 

From the New York Times: "A youth-driven and socially conscious music genre called mahraganat reflects social shifts spurred by the revolution that toppled President Hosni Mubarak in 2011."

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World's First Beach Calligrapher Enhances South African Beaches

From Visual News: "Although calligraphy is one of the oldest forms of artistic writing, this twist by artist Andrew van der Merwe is relatively new. For the past eight years, the self-proclaimed Beach Scriber has been creating beautiful calligraphy in the sands of Cape Town, South Africa."

To read a bit more about this artist, and see more examples of his beachscapes, see this article.

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Art Through Time: A Global View

If you've ever been interested in exploring global art throughout history, you should definitely take a look at Art Through Time: A Global Series.

Rather than presenting art through the usual historical chronology, this series focuses on 13 big themes - dreams and vision, the body, nature, cosmology and belief, etc. - and looks at how these themes have been expressed in various art form around the world in different eras. Each theme is explored in a half-hour video, available on the site for free. (Or if you prefer, you can read the illustrated video transcripts.) 

In addition to the 13 half-hour theme videos, the website also provides images of over 200 artworks, categorized by period, region, and medium, to review. 

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