The Dancing Monks
Matthieu Ricard
Agence VU
Photography, for me, is a hymn to beauty. I started out when I was about 15 with my friend André Fatras, a wildlife photographer and great adventurer. Nature was my first subject.
After finishing my thesis on molecular genetics at the Institut Pasteur in France, I travelled to the Himalayas in 1972. Over the years, I photographed my spiritual guides and their world.
My only aim was to share with others the magnificence of the human nature I saw there.
Beauty and dignity can exist alongside intense pain, and hope can survive even the most total destruction and persecution.
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No one demonstrates this more clearly than the Tibetans: they have proven capable of preserving their happiness, inner strength and determination, although they are undergoing human and cultural genocide.
Images of suffering, distress and infamy abound, but I have never been able to shoot such pictures. To my mind, it is vitally important to inspire trust and hope, because that is what we truly need. I use very simple equipment. Sometimes, several months go by without my taking any photographs at all.
Then a day comes when the people, the place and the light come together so beautifully that it is impossible to resist putting it all in a picture, as an offering to all those who will lay their eyes on it.
Matthieu Ricard
