Tibetan Polaroids

I took an old Polaroid camera to Tibet.

I was interested in working with Polaroid because each image is a physical artifact that degrades over time – a record of impermanence in a Buddhist land (I am a Zen practitioner myself).

This was the first time I had used a Polaroid camera. It was a lot of fun

I made:

2 pictures of my guides Tasha and Kinga

8 pictures of Tibetan Children and their teacher in a classroom

9 pictures of monks in monasteries

1 picture of a deer wandering through a monastery

7 pictures of mothers and their daughters at a ceremony in a nunnery

1 picture of a high lama

1 picture of two men in a cafe

1 picture of a waitress in a cafe

6 pictures of nomad families standing by their black tents in a summer pasture

1 picture of a man selling watermelons

1 picture of a hotel receptionist

1 picture of a monk in a cave

3 pictures of men we gave lifts to on the road

1 picture of a man on his motorbike by a Stupa

1 picture of a cook preparing a meal

I gave all of these pictures to Tibetans.

These few that remain are some of my most treasured photographs…

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