A Celebration of Balinese Artistry & Ceremony, Ubud

My Photo scholarship 2010 entry

Worldwide | Tuesday, September 7, 2010 | 5 photos

I moved to Bali a couple of years ago, and utterly fell in love with Ubud, the island's cultural and spiritual centre. Beauty and creativity are paramount here, as is the relationship between mankind and the divine, which is celebrated in a myriad of ways and often through large-scale ceremony. Ubud is a place where the natural world still thrives - we live amid frogs and ducks, geckos and dogs, and and there is evidence of craftsmanship everywhere - people are immensely skilful at using their hands. It's a simple, beautiful life in a place that is not yet overtaken by technology. These photos are a celebration of the grace, dignity and heightened sense of artistry of the Balinese people, as they go about their spiritual lives.

I take immense joy in photography but am yet to take this further than sharing photos with friends and family. Boasting so much natural and man-made beauty, Bali has served as a profound inspiration and a tremendous starting point. A trip to Bhutan would be a once-in-a-lifetime experience - more than Bali, Bhutan is a place unspoiled by the modern world, where a slow pace of life is the norm, where traditional ways of life persist. I'm a practising Buddhist and an environmentalist, and would dearly love to photograph a staggeringly beautiful country that has only had access to television for the last decade and is so enlightened that not only does it feature a gross happiness index, but it's illegal to cut down a tree or catch a fish!