MAKING ART OF ATMOSPHERE, COLOR, & AIR

Color-saturated clouds envelop bodies and spirits at the beginning of the vernal equinox during the annual Hindu celebration of Holi. The story behind it is as colorful as the festival itself. Religious tradition holds that a pious boy named Pahlada was carried into a fire by Holika, a demoness impervious to flame. He was saved by his devotion to Krishna while Holika perished. This triumph of good over evil evolved to become the most joyous celebration in Hindu tradition, where crowds embrace in the streets despite differences in caste, bombarding each other with fragrant, pigmented powder to welcome new life and the colors of spring.

Photographer Katrin Korfmann’s signature bird’s-eye viewpoint beautifully captured the exuberance of the festival, which she photographed on a recent trip to India. German-born Korfmann, who now makes her home in Amsterdam, calls her triptych of photos “Kolorit,” a German word that means “color, atmosphere, air” as well as “a culture or lifestyle in a foreign place.” While the images were each taken at the same location during the festival, the flow of the crowds and the changing colors of the billowing clouds of powder demonstrate the passing of time.

Korfmman’s painting-like photographs, which often explore ideas of space and time, have earned acclaim including the Rado Star Prize Switzerland in May 2012. View more of her work here, or in person at exhibitions in Boston, New York City, and Stockholm from March through June, 2013.