Today we’d like to introduce you to Sej Saraiya.
Sej, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I started photographing at the age of ten when my parents gifted me a film camera. I photographed everything back then. We would go to the Kodak store to have the film developed and come back with an album full of photos of ants! I made tons of self-portraits as well, although I can’t remember how I created them back in the 90’s.
As a child, photographing, storytelling and writing poetry were ways to create an ideal universe. When I moved to Los Angeles in my early twenties, I spent most of my free days driving out to photograph the gorgeous landscape of this country. But the stories that I truly wanted to tell I only found in my late twenties when I hit the road with all my camera gear in a backpack to explore the remote tribes of Asia.
And that was quite a journey! I lived in places with no running water and electricity, slept on hammocks on river islands on the Amazon under the open sky, climbed active volcanoes, spent months communicating with people who didn’t speak my language, photographed in scorching deserts to bring back stories that I hoped would create a positive impact on human consciousness.
My journey took me to some very remote corners of this planet, putting me in contact with the last tattooed headhunters of remote India and the medicine women of British Columbia; the shamans of the Venezuelan Amazonas to such globally revered leaders and humanitarians as Their Holinesses the Dalai Lama and Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, Vedic scientists and healers; all with the broader vision of preserving our world’s cultures and lands.
The reason I photograph is to experience the human spirit beyond the precinct of words. The human spirit illuminates so beautifully in silence and photographs, in their odic stillness, have an incredible power to capture that true essence.
Has it been a smooth road?
It was a bumpy ride, literally and figuratively. Most of the places I visited weren’t even on the map, and the ways to get to them were unconventional to say the least. I was a woman traveling solo and didn’t yet possess the faculties to navigate this remote world. I often found myself in strange situations– like being crammed in the back of a pick-up van with tons of tattooed-faced women authoritatively telling me that I would be sleeping in one of their homes that night. I went with the flow. I surrendered. And came back with portraits I probably wouldn’t have gotten any other way. It was truly an intimate look into the lives of these peoples.
While it was an honor to be invited in, it was a big challenge for me to let go of control, trust the process and trust complete strangers. I faced danger along the way but learned a lot about the inherent beauty in human beings and the power of true connection, something we tend to forget in our sheltered, busy and often self-absorbed city lives. People are inherently kind and giving if we can forego the societal boundaries that separate us.
We’d love to hear more about your work and what you are currently focused on. What else should we know?
I shoot portraits and videos for artists, musicians and conscious businesses in Los Angeles. Having spent so much time with and photographing powerful indigenous women who wear their sun-burned and wrinkled skin with so much grace and ownership, I have come to realize the sheer futility of the ever-changing and quite impossible beauty standards that society imposes upon us, especially on girls and women. I hope to inspire people to come back to themselves through my lens, and consider it my work to make my clients look powerful and stunning in their most natural light.
I am also a fine-art photographer and an exhibiting artist. My series, Advaita (or non-duality), which focuses on the mutual interwovenness among all living beings, aims to awaken the subtler emotions in viewers. I have often had viewers get teary-eyed with a sense of nostalgia, recognizing something within themselves from a glimpse at the subjects however different they are in their looks, clothing and mannerisms. That split-second of non-duality experienced by the viewer is what drives me to exhibit and sell my photographs to private collectors worldwide, that is, to start a conversation. Having a photograph of a sun- and- moon worshipping Apatani woman from remote India at the home of a meditation teacher in Belgium or a surfer in Australia may evoke the curiosity of their guests and spark a discussion about, say, the nuances of the earth-friendly practices of said tribe. There’s a lot to be learned from indigenous people and remote tribes especially in terms of their ways of living and co-existing with other living beings on this planet. There’s a lot to be learned from nature. There’s a lot to be learned from silence. I hope to bring that to light through my art.
So, what’s next? Any big plans?
I have a documentary feature film scheduled for release in early 2021 that I am very excited about. It is an inspirational story of a nomadic tribe of desert women from India who changed the social structure of their caste and ended female infanticide through dance. I also have a book in the works with an esteemed LA-based editor and friend, based on my photographic journeys that gave rise to my own experiences of advaita, or non-duality. My short film based on silence is currently making festival rounds. And I continue to shoot for artists and conscious businesses in Los Angeles who are making a positive impact on our planet through their talents.
Contact Info:
- Website: http://www.sejalsaraiya.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sejsaraiya/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sejalsaraiya
- Other: http://www.kalbeliyafilm.com
Image Credit:
Sej Saraiya, Jiayi Liang, Sarah Singer, Levy Guerts
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