fbpx

To Reach the Source

The Stepwells of India

$35.00

To Reach the Source: The Stepwells of India is a photography book about a unique and magnificent architectural form that remains unknown to most people outside (and even within) India.

 
Size: 9″ x 11″ Landscape
ISBN: 978-1-961856-34-9
Binding: Hardbound
Pages: 120pp
Publication Date: Fall 2024
World Rights: Available

COMING SOON, PRE-ORDER

Description

“A stepwell renders the water’s many meanings manifest, immanent, palpable; the space encourages us to become mindful of the essential, sacred nature of water, even though this life force or energy is not personified or named. It provides a kind of darshan, the moment when a Hindu devotee experiences a connection with the divine and comes to feel blessed.”

Additional information

Weight 2 lbs
Dimensions 10 × 10 × 1 in
Publication date

November 2022

Size

8.5" x 11" portrait

img img

Details

Overview

More than just a shaft dug into the earth to fetch water, these are entire buildings that descend several stories below ground; they are spaces to be entered and occupied, serving functional, social, and ritual purposes. Often, they are as monumental and ornate as a church, and this is intentional. They are a source of water, a gathering space, and a temple all at once, but instead of rising into the sky, they descend below the surface. They create a spatial experience unlike any other, in which one is below ground but remains connected to the sun and sky. Today they lie largely abandoned and overlooked, in various states of preservation or, more often, disrepair.

The photographs seek to recreate the striking ambiance that they elicit. The brief text that follows the images (interspersed with a few architectural drawings) provides a necessary minimum of context, ultimately to reinforce the primarily visual nature of the reader’s experience, one in which the photographs have priority. The photographs seek to give readers some sense of the meditative process of descending into these beautiful structures, of going away from the surface on which we live, but not being cut off from it, instead directed towards the very source of life.

Authors

Claudio Cambon has worked as a photographer for more than 30 years, and on the Indian Subcontinent for more than 25 of them. He has worked, exhibited, published, taught, and lectured across the world. He is currently residing in France.

News

Additional Info

Size: 9″ x 11″ Landscape
ISBN: 978-1-961856-34-9
Binding: Hardbound
Pages: 120pp
Publication Date: Fall 2024
World Rights: Available

Image 1
Image 2

To Reach the Source

“A stepwell renders the water’s many meanings manifest, immanent, palpable; the space encourages us to become mindful of the essential, sacred nature of water, even though this life force or energy is not personified or named. It provides a kind of darshan, the moment when a Hindu devotee experiences a connection with the divine and comes to feel blessed.”

San Francisco

31 Commercial Blvd. Suite F
Novato, CA 94949
t 1.415.883.3300
f 1.415.883.3309

Los Angeles

ORO LA Office
5520 Palos Verdes Blvd.
Torrance, CA 90505
t: 1.310.318.5186

Montreal

180 Chemin Danis
Grenville PQ, J0V 1B0
Quebec, Canada
t 1.415.233.1944

Singapore

2 Venture Dr.
#11-15 Vision Exchange
Singapore 608526
t 65.66.2206

Shenzhen

Room 15E, Building 7, 
Ying Jun Nian Hua Garden,
Dan Zhu Tou, Shenhui Road, Buji, Longgang district,
Shenzhen, China 518114w
t 86.1372.4392.704

Buenos Aires

Juramento 3115
Buenos Aires C1428DOC
Argentina
t 54.911.6861.2543

© 2023 ORO Editions. All Rights Reserved. Designed by Organ Creative

© 2021 ORO Editions.
All Rights Reserved. Designed by Organ Creative

© 2021 ORO Editions. All Rights Reserved. Designed by Organ Creative

© 2021 ORO Editions. All Rights Reserved. Designed by Organ Creative

© 2021 ORO Editions. All Rights Reserved. Designed by Organ Creative

Generic selectors
Exact matches only
Search in title
Search in content
Post Type Selectors