Stunning Photos From Around The World Bring Yoga Poses To Life
Every artist has his or her own muse or source of inspiration. Fernanda Olivier was Picasso’s, Clizia was Italian poet Eugenio Montale’s; the interplay of light was Monet’s; and ballerinas were Degas’. Alessandro Sigismondi discovered a fertile space for artistic freedom and creativity when he started practicing Ashtanga Yoga.
Sigismondi was born in Italy, and worked there for 15 years in advertising as a copywriter. Today, however, he shuttles between India and Europe, working with yogis from all over the world, photographing and videotaping them as they practice their discipline (usually Ashtanga yoga) in order to capture the soul of this discipline through an intimate approach to its students.
Ashtanga was introduced by the Indian master Sri K. Pattabhi Jois through schools in Mysore, in Southern India, and quickly spread all over the globe. Today Ashtanga is carried forward by Jois’s grandson, Sharath Rangaswami Jois, as well as by students who have progressed in the discipline and become certified instructors.
Fascinated by the atmosphere and intensity of the photographs and videos Sigismondi produces, HuffPost Italy got in touch with him to ask him to talk about his work and his conception of yoga.
When and how did you first start making videos about yoga? Was there any one particular event that inspired you to dedicate yourself to the artistic and aesthetic representation of this ancient practice?
In Mysore we met yoga masters and practitioners from all over the world, and then everything else came together mostly by chance. After a teacher from Costa Rica, Mariela Cruz, found out about the kind of work I used to do, she asked me, “Why don’t you make a yoga video?” I’d never made a video, much less set up a channel on YouTube! But since I’d worked for years alongside videomakers and film directors, I felt comfortable with it right from the start. The video we made was an instant, unexpected hit. It was picked up by the Elephant Journal, and from that moment forward I started making … Stunning Photos From Around The World Bring Yoga Poses To Life