Desirée Dolron

Does extreme physical torture increase religious awareness or bliss? Are these carvings physical or purely mental or both? Are we as human beings especially equipped for having religious experiences? What is the explanation for this passage from pain to religious ecstasy or vice versa? What is it that gives mankind this craving for transcendence?

Desirée Dolron is in a continuous search for answers to these questions. Between 1991 and the release of this book (2000), religion, ecstasy and violence have been the subject of her photographs. Her genuine interest as an artist in the questions above, and her skills and control of the property of the medium have elevated her photographs to a singular aesthetic not seen often in contemporary art.

This book is a collection of photographs of the time she spent in India, the Philippines, Malaysia, Morocco, Pakistan, and Thailand to observe the rituals of many diverse religious groups. The work has a documentary content, and each single image freezes the motion in a moment of religious ecstasy.

Desirée Dolron’s work is pure photography and captures that rare combination of reality and abstraction in its most convincing form.

These are the last copies of a  sold out book.