Photo books

Auroville from Above had a similar impact on some of the viewers. “What a change of perspective!” wrote one, “It feels like helping us to realize the amazing place/gift we are living in.”

In the previous edition of Auroville Today, we mentioned the publication of Nadia Loury's bilingual (French/English) photographic book, Auroville 80, which captures the poetry of daily life of the Aurovilians in the 1980s.

It is sometimes difficult to place the 1980s in Auroville. The 1970s was a period of pioneering and high drama – including, as it does, Mother’s passing and the conflict with the Society – while the 1990s witnessed a Cambrian explosion of projects.

The Dawn of Auroville, which is published by the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, is a book of early photographs along with an outline history of Auroville’s conception, inauguration and growth during the Mother’s lifetime.

How can you encompass something as complex and as multi-layered as Auroville? You can’t, of course. But it may be easier to capture something of this extraordinary adventure through images than through words.

Two and a half years ago, Ireno Guerci presented a photo exhibition in the Unity Pavilion on ‘Matrimandir and the Park of Unity’. The photos were a selection from the many thousand photos that he has taken over the past 30 years of a place that is very close to his heart.

PRISMA has just released a new book that focuses upon one of the most beautiful gardens in an Auroville community. Gaia’s Garden in Auroville contains many photographs, taken through the seasons, of the flowers, trees and interesting corners of this labour of love of Dutch Aurovilian, Kireet Jak, a project which he describes as “an interaction and play with nature waiting for the unexpected surprises of Mother Nature”.

The name of Dominique Darr is indissolubly connected to the early days of Auroville. Who in Auroville doesn’t know her photo of a lone granite stone with the letters AV painted on it, marking Auroville land?

Four years after publishing a book with selected photos of the Mother, we are happy to present the companion book with pictures of Sri Aurobindo.