https://vimeo.com/68044294
Robyn Beeche spent some 25 years living more or less permanently in Vrindavan. Clearly she was deeply immersed in the culture. Robyn’s grasp of the spiritual truths of India meant that she was very capable of fusing the profound with the everyday, and simply being. That is an abiding contentment that few achieve.
Robyn moved to London from Sydney, Australia in the mid-1970’s. She became a renowned professional photographer in the commercial world of advertising, beauty and fashion, while also known for her iconic documentation of the 1980’s. That was an era rich with experimentation and creativity, and her images have bequeathed a photographic tour de force of the aesthetics of underground London, especially in that decade. Robyn was equally celebrated for her ground-breaking photographs of painted bodies.
Robyn worked in the pre-digital age and therefore without any manipulation of images. “Nothing is collage, nothing is retouched–it is all done in the camera” she said. “In those days we had to carefully manipulate film through its processing to get different effects and there was plenty that could go wrong.”
Robyn’s approach to commercial and fashion photography raised the stakes for those who followed. She looked beyond the brand and the market, and instead catalysed creative collaborations, with invention and a robust sense of humour, which translated her fashion and beauty photography into an art form.
From 1983, Robyn began photographing the yearly rituals and the festivals of Vraja, the area of Krishna’s birth and youth. She made the move to live most of the time in India in 1992, becoming a vital participant in and contributor to the life of Jaisingh Ghera ashram, in service to Radharaman temple in Vrindavan. Robyn was an enduring presence at Jaisingh Ghera. “She was always there to help one and all, to facilitate the stay of countless scholars who spent time there in the last quarter of a century. Everyone who knew her was immediately and indelibly impressed by her kindness, caring nature, artistic sense, which seemed to follow her like fairy dust, and of course her photographic record,” wrote Dr. Frederick Smith, Sanskrit Professor at the University of Iowa.
Robyn applied the skills she had developed in her London work to documenting the many subtle nuances and significant aspects of Krishna worship, through which she captured the essence of the culture of Vraja. She produced several books on Indian arts and sacred architecture. Her major book, a delight for anyone to see, is ‘Celebrating Krishna’, with Shrivatsa Goswami ji, who wrote the text to accompany Robyn’s photographs.
Jack Hawley, Professor of Religion at Barnard College, praises Beeche’s work for not only capturing the moment, but “she records people at worship and is a chronicler of how the deity appears and the art that surrounds him,” he says. “This is a way of performing seva, the Hindu concept of service, for the community and the deity. She’s an artist but she’s also recording the art of others.” Middlebury College Art History Professor Cynthia Packert says that Beeche brings to life how people view religious darshan. “The heart and soul of darshan is to attain connection – the sensuousness of the visual experience. It’s like you’re experiencing darshan yourself.”
In 1989, she directed the film ‘Holi – Festival of Colours’, and in 1995 held her first photographic exhibition on the Culture of Vraja, at the Piramal Gallery, NCPA, Bombay. About that exhibition Robyn noted, “I see this exhibition as a way of the viewer being able to experience this living space of Vraja, of appreciating these age-old traditions which are being kept alive for generations to come. It is by documenting them that I wish to help perpetuate their existence within a rapidly changing society.”
Her work and life have captured the attention of many, including filmmaker Lesley Branagan, who made ‘A Life Exposed’, a 2013 documentary about Robyn. While her talent speaks for itself, it is her trajectory from the secular West to the noisy, even overwhelming, pluralistic India that most captures attention. “My life is like green traffic lights – I’ve just gone through them. I’ve just accepted everything and had a go.”
Surely her beloved Radharaman ji, whom she photographed so extensively, was well engraved in her mind at the time of her passing.
Robyn Beeche spent some 25 years living more or less permanently in Vrindavan. Clearly she was deeply immersed in the culture. Robyn’s grasp of the spiritual truths of India meant that she was very capable of fusing the profound with the everyday, and simply being. That is an abiding contentment that few achieve.
Robyn moved to London from Sydney, Australia in the mid-1970’s. She became a renowned professional photographer in the commercial world of advertising, beauty and fashion, while also known for her iconic documentation of the 1980’s. That was an era rich with experimentation and creativity, and her images have bequeathed a photographic tour de force of the aesthetics of underground London, especially in that decade. Robyn was equally celebrated for her ground-breaking photographs of painted bodies.
Robyn worked in the pre-digital age and therefore without any manipulation of images. “Nothing is collage, nothing is retouched–it is all done in the camera” she said. “In those days we had to carefully manipulate film through its processing to get different effects and there was plenty that could go wrong.”
Robyn’s approach to commercial and fashion photography raised the stakes for those who followed. She looked beyond the brand and the market, and instead catalysed creative collaborations, with invention and a robust sense of humour, which translated her fashion and beauty photography into an art form.
From 1983, Robyn began photographing the yearly rituals and the festivals of Vraja, the area of Krishna’s birth and youth. She made the move to live most of the time in India in 1992, becoming a vital participant in and contributor to the life of Jaisingh Ghera ashram, in service to Radharaman temple in Vrindavan. Robyn was an enduring presence at Jaisingh Ghera. “She was always there to help one and all, to facilitate the stay of countless scholars who spent time there in the last quarter of a century. Everyone who knew her was immediately and indelibly impressed by her kindness, caring nature, artistic sense, which seemed to follow her like fairy dust, and of course her photographic record,” wrote Dr. Frederick Smith, Sanskrit Professor at the University of Iowa.
Robyn applied the skills she had developed in her London work to documenting the many subtle nuances and significant aspects of Krishna worship, through which she captured the essence of the culture of Vraja. She produced several books on Indian arts and sacred architecture. Her major book, a delight for anyone to see, is ‘Celebrating Krishna’, with Shrivatsa Goswami ji, who wrote the text to accompany Robyn’s photographs.
Jack Hawley, Professor of Religion at Barnard College, praises Beeche’s work for not only capturing the moment, but “she records people at worship and is a chronicler of how the deity appears and the art that surrounds him,” he says. “This is a way of performing seva, the Hindu concept of service, for the community and the deity. She’s an artist but she’s also recording the art of others.” Middlebury College Art History Professor Cynthia Packert says that Beeche brings to life how people view religious darshan. “The heart and soul of darshan is to attain connection – the sensuousness of the visual experience. It’s like you’re experiencing darshan yourself.”
In 1989, she directed the film ‘Holi – Festival of Colours’, and in 1995 held her first photographic exhibition on the Culture of Vraja, at the Piramal Gallery, NCPA, Bombay. About that exhibition Robyn noted, “I see this exhibition as a way of the viewer being able to experience this living space of Vraja, of appreciating these age-old traditions which are being kept alive for generations to come. It is by documenting them that I wish to help perpetuate their existence within a rapidly changing society.”
Her work and life have captured the attention of many, including filmmaker Lesley Branagan, who made ‘A Life Exposed’, a 2013 documentary about Robyn. While her talent speaks for itself, it is her trajectory from the secular West to the noisy, even overwhelming, pluralistic India that most captures attention. “My life is like green traffic lights – I’ve just gone through them. I’ve just accepted everything and had a go.”
Surely her beloved Radharaman ji, whom she photographed so extensively, was well engraved in her mind at the time of her passing.
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