ERIN FOTI DARSHAN दर्शन
Inspired by the poem “Unending Love” by the renowned Indian poet and spiritualist Rabindranath Tagore, Erin Foti has sought to capture the spiritual essence of India. She has had numerous sojourns across the country, with concentrations in the Hardiwar, Rishikesh, and Varanasi regions of the sacred Ganges River. Excelling in black & white and color photographic processes and technologies, Foti has accumulated an archive of over six hundred edited images since her first trip to India.
At that time, Erin began the series of photographs titled Darshan - an expression most commonly used for visions of the divine. These portraits of individuals seen reverently through her lens are selected for their transcending presence. Steeped in Buddhist, Vedic and Jungian traditions, she shares a deep spiritual connection with her subjects. The ash covered nude body of a holy man known as a Sadhu, a young girl on the banks of the Ganges, a kneeling cow, and objects from daily life are selected not only for their aesthetic and cultural significance, but as an event in consciousness; an interaction in presence between the object and the devotee. In this body of work Foti aspires to capture Satcitananda - the Sanskrit term for absolute being, absolute consciousness, and absolute bliss.
Foti began her photographic career in fashion, assisting renowned photographers Bruce Weber and Patrick Demarchelier in New York and Paris, honing her craft before striking out on her own. After living in Paris, she returned to her native California to expand her experience in the fields of interactive media and digital imaging, and worked on various multimedia projects including one with author Deepak Chopra. For more than a decade, she was the Design Director at the legendary Chateau Marmont Hotel in West Hollywood, California and is currently principal designer at Erin Foti Design.
Born in Berkeley, California, Foti spent her teenage years in New York, where she attended photography workshops at the School of Visual Arts, International Center of Photography, and Rochester Institute of Technology. She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts from Brooks Institute in Santa Barbara, California. She currently lives in Los Angeles.