Himalayan images at the Pitt Rivers

An exhibition of Himalayan photographs by the Swedish photographer Karl-Einar Löfqvist is currently on display in the Balfour Building at the Pitt Rivers Museum until the end of January 2000. The Western Himalayan region of Ladakh has inspired Löfqvist's work for over a decade, and the exhibition of black and white photographs is the result of numerous journeys he has made to this arid mountainous area located at over 12,000 feet in the Indian Himalayas. Close relationships have been forged between the photographer and a number of the inhabitants, which have resulted in an intimate record of life in the homes, fields, and monasteries of Ladakh (pictured left), where Tibetan Buddhism flourishes. Löfqvist's images reveal the interplay between the sacred and the secular, the rigours and beauty of a harsh environment and the sensibilities of a subtle observer of lives lived on the roof of the world. Dr Clare Harris, Lecturer in anthropology and Curator at the Pitt Rivers Museum, said: `These photographs will appeal to those interested in the ethnography of the Himalayas, visual anthropology and the practice of Tibetan Buddhism but above all they are beautiful images.'