Cloth Paper Dreams

As the Maha Kumbh Mela Pilgrimage in India fast approaches (it's a 55 day event that happens every 12 years at the confluence of the three holiest rivers in India held Jan/Feb 2025) I will be posting images over the next month from the last Kumbh Mela that happened in 2013.

Back in 2013, I was commissioned by the Museum of the Southwest to create a exhibition under the theme "Myth and Legend". Nothing was more mythical and legendary than the Kumbh Mela, so I pointed my creative compass that direction and from that was born a twenty four piece exhibition and an eleven minute short film, Cloth Paper Dreams. We ended up screening the short on the film festival circuit and honorably received a few recognitions for our film. That short, thanks to many talented people, now lives on Gaia.com or Amazon Prime
https://tinyurl.com/amazonCPD and can be streamed for free at https://vimeo.com/215347647

The traveling exhibition ultimately included the framed photography exhibit, a screening of the short film, classical Indian music by Indrajit Banerjee (sitar) and Gourisankar (tabla drums) and a very creative interpretive dance about the pilgrimage by Anu Naimpally and the Austin Dance India. We also served Indian food at some of the eight art center/museums where the project was ultimately shared. It was a project very close to my heart and still is. ...

© Greg Davis Photography 2013
"Nectar of Immortality, India'

Fifty to one hundred million, that is how many pilgrims were estimated to have made the journey to the confluence of the holiest rivers in India during the epic Maha Kumbh Mela in 2013. The Hindu belief is that good and evil fought over a cup (Kumbh) of nectar of immortality (Amrita) in the beginning of time. During that twelve day fight, four droplets fell to the Earth. Twelve God days is equivilent to twelve human years, so every twelfth year for thousands of years, they have come. It is believed that the waters of the confluence redeem, and when consumed and bathed in, will allow a Hindu to break their cycle of reincarnation and be granted access to the afterlife. 2013 was marked as the world’s largest gathering of human beings ever. Some thirty million were recorded on the single largest day. A joyful occasion for all of those who made the journey to connect with something greater than themselves..
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Thank you again to the Frame4Frame Festival of the honor of selecting our film as "Best Short Documentary 2017".

Stream at http://clothpaperdreams.com

Collect at http://www.gregdavisphotography.com