Hindu deities brought to life

Maa Lakshmi, goddess of wealth and fortune 

Lord Shiva, god of destruction

Lord Hanuman, the Monkey God

Lord Ganesha, the Elephant God

Saw this amazing project on my twitterfeed from The New York Times.  Manjari Sharma, is an Indian photographer who relocated to the US in her early 20's.  As a child, she would spend time visiting Hindu temples with her parents and she later recalled what a powerful sensory and spiritual occurrence it was to see the statues or paintings there in situ depicting the various gods.  After having lived in the West for some time, she decided to try and recreate some of that experience by photographing the deities that meant the most to her.  She engaged a large and willing crew of craftspeople to enable her to create as much as possible in camera so that the result is that the viewer believes they are looking at a painting only to have a double-take moment when they realise it is a photograph.  She has called this project Darshan which means sight, vision or view in Sanskrit and is used most in reference to Hindu worship.  The prints are 6feet tall to emulate as closely as possible the experience of seeing the gods in a Hindu temple.  The series is currently on display at The Clamp Art Gallery New York until 12th October.