AAM AASTHA

A festival of Indian folk rituals and costumes bursting with colour, captured by renowned photographer Charles Freger, the creator of a distinctive and powerful new genre of portrait photography. Internationally renowned photographer Charles Freger continues to explore global traditions and cultures, by celebrating the powerful visual aspects of Indian folk culture and religious ritual. India is the home to a myriad of local traditions, legends and religions, each with their own festivals, rites and rituals. Celebrations burst with vivid colours and often wildly exuberant costumes, some representing gods and goddesses, others legendary heroes from Sanskrit epics such as the Mahabharata and the Ramayana. In Charles Freger's photographs, those who honour local cultural traditions are represented in single or group portraits, represented against carefully chosen landscapes and backdrops, from the heart of festivals and celebrations. Freger's unmistakable style of portraiture allows us to