Jasper Johal

Thank You

For reasons I’d rather not discuss publicly I was unable to post for a while. I wish to sincerely thank those of you who stuck by me. Supporting an artist pay his or her bills when they are unable to work is the very definition of being an art patron. Thank you!

I love sharing my work and I will do my best to catch up with posts in the coming weeks. I also have a pile of messages to get through. Thank you for your concern and good wishes. I’ll be answering each one personally in the...

Dancing in the Rain

Sometimes I meet a model who is so creative and so good with the camera I give her carte blanche. I let her know she can show up whenever she wants and I will come up with something fun for us to shoot.

Karina was one of those. She was a college student when I met her and she had time on her hands. She enjoyed creating and ended up driving to my studio after her classes several times. We did a bunch of shoots before she moved out of town after her semester ended.

One day we did a ...

Tearing the veil

In the clear dawn, before the east was red,
Before the rose had torn her veil in two,
A nightingale through Hafiz’ garden flew,
Stayed but to fill its song with tears, and fled.

– words from a sweet Hafiz poem, translated by the remarkable adventurer, Gertrude Bell in 1897

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Many of us have heard of Lawrence of Arabia. But Gertrude Bell (1868–1926), a Victorian woman, did even more to try and create an Independent Arabian state. Remarkably for a woman...

Grace

My life is not dated by years--
There are moments which act as plough;
And there is not a furrow appears
But is deep in my soul as my brow.

Let the young and the brilliant aspire
To sing what I gaze on in vain;
For sorrow has torn from my lyre
The string which was worthy the strain.

– Lord Byron (1788–1824)

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PHOTO: Cirque artist Jacqui displaying her graceful flexibility, from a shoot we did ages ago.

Companion to myself

When the sky overhead is blue,
Balmy, scented winds will after
Us, adown the valley blow
Haunting echoes of our laughter.

So we’ll walk the Way-of-Life,
You and I, Love, both together,
Storm or sunshine, happy we
If be foul or fair the weather.

– from a poem by Carrie Williams Clifford (1862–1934)

I feel the most important relationship we have in life is the one we have with our own self. Once we learn to enjoy our own company, life’s storm...

Shine bright

Never forget who you are
Little star
Shining brighter than all the stars in the sky
Never forget how to dream
Butterfly
Never forget where you come from
From love

– Lyrics by Madonna and Rick Nowels, 1998

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PHOTO: The reach of social media has turned the whole world into a small village. It used to surprise me when people from overseas would contact me saying they love my work and wanted to come shoot with me. Now I am getting used to it.

K...

Dance

“Dance is the hidden language of the soul.” ― Martha Graham

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PHOTO: My life has been blessed by the many amazing dancers and yogis who have come to my studio, allowing my camera to capture their grace and form.

These photos are from my first session with one of my favorite dancers, Angelica, who travels the world performing in various circuses.

Dancing into a new year

The new years come, the old years go,
We know we dream, we dream we know.

We rise up laughing with the light,
We lie down weeping with the night.

We hug the world until it stings,
We curse it then and sigh for wings.

We live, we love, we woo, we wed,
We wreathe our brides, we sheet our dead.

We laugh, we weep, we hope, we fear,
And that's the turning of the year.

– from a poem by Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1850–1919)

Phantom of Delight

She was a Phantom of delight
When first she gleam'd upon my sight;
Her eyes as stars of twilight fair;
Like twilight's, too, her dusky hair;

A dancing shape, an image gay,
To haunt, to startle, and waylay.
And yet a Spirit still, and bright
With something of an angel light.

– from a poem by William Wordsworth (1770–1850)

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PHOTOS: Sharing another bunch of aerial photos of my dear friend Crystal, who has been battling cance...

Spirit of thee

In the desert a fountain is springing,
In the wide waste there still is a tree,
And a bird in the solitude singing,
Which speaks to my spirit of thee.

–– Lord Byron (1788–1824)

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PHOTO: Julina is a delightful traveling model who visited my studio whenever she swung through California. We created these photos when she decided to take up yoga.

Instagram: @julinab...

Meeting

It was supposed to be a business meeting about a publishing project. But when Stacey walked in with hunched shoulders and a glum look, I said, “Tough day?” She nodded as she slumped onto my fuzzy sofa.

Stacey wasn’t a model. We had met only once before at a talk given by her boss at a photography event. We had chatted afterwards and decided to meet to discuss publishing something, as that was her area of expertise.

After chilling in silence for a few minutes she looked up an...

Dreamer

Bring me all of your dreams,
You dreamer,
Bring me all your
Heart melodies
That I may wrap them
In a blue cloud-cloth
Away from the too-rough fingers
Of the world.

–– “The Dream Keeper” by Langston Hughes (1932)

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PHOTO: Even a bit of mesh can turn into a luminous prop for a person who knows how to move. Hallie dancing in my studio, wrapped in, believe it or not, a piece of mosquito netting.

Mingle

The fountains mingle with the river
And the rivers with the ocean
The winds of heaven mix for ever
With a sweet emotion;

Nothing in the world is single
All things by a law divine
In one another’s being mingle
Why not I with thine?

–– from “Love’s Philosophy” by Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792 – 1822)

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PHOTO: Janet and I met at an after party for a theatre show. Her boy friend had seen my work and encouraged her to ...

Brighten as the sun at noon

When the first star with brilliance bright,
Gleams lonely o’er the arch of night;
When the bright moon dispels the gloom,
And various are the stars that bloom,
And brighten as the sun at noon,
Forget me not.

– from a poem by Ann Plato (c. 1824 – unknown)

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PHOTO: Sending adoration and hugs to Cristal, who is celebrating her 40th. Love her lyrical moves and athleticism!

Cristal is a wonderful, warm hearted yoga teacher from the eas...

A Fountain and a Shrine

Thou wast that all to me love
For which my soul did pine
A green isle in the sea love
A fountain and a shrine

And all my days are trances
And all my nightly dreams
Are where thy grey eye glances
And where thy footstep gleams

– from a poem by Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849)

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PHOTO: Liz Ashley visited my studio in Venice. At first we did some yoga photos, and then she continued with free form dancing.

Instagram: 2021-12-31 13:39:53 +0000 UTC View Post

Perfect being

Hung with the sunset’s fringe of gold;
Now strangely clear thine image grows,
And olden memories
Are startled from their long repose
Like shadows on the silent snows
When suddenly the night-wind blows
Where quiet moonlight ties.

Like music heard in dreams,
Like strains of harps unknown,
Of birds forever flown
Audible as the voice of streams
I hear thy gentlest tone,
And Silence cometh with her spell
Like that which on my tongue doth dwell,
When t...

Enchantress

Last eve in dreams, I saw thee stand,
Like queenly nymphs from Fairy-land—
Enchantress of the flowery wand,
Most beauteous Isadore!

Thy classic brow, like lilies white
And pale as the Imperial Night
Upon her throne, with stars bedight,
Enthralled my soul to thee!

– from a poem by Edgar Allan Poe

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PHOTO: One of many yogis that wandered into my Venice Beach studio to do yoga, sans clothes. My friends had an informal name ...

Radiant as the moon

You, Venus-like face
radiant as the moon
Roses lean in
begging for your lovely color,
what need do you have of rose wine?
In your depths is the ocean infinite,
what will you do with some drops of dew?
You who are existence entire,
why do you seek oblivion?

– Rumi (Mathnavi V: 3563-3590)

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PHOTO: One day my beautiful friend Aria arrived at my studio with a gentle snake named Egypt. The snake belonged to one of the musicians that han...

Shoulders of Love

The longer I live and the more I see
Of the struggle of souls towards the heights above,
The stronger this truth comes home to me
That the Universe rests on the shoulders of love,

– from a poem by Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1850–1919)

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PHOTO: Caley and Kate were roommates in Venice Beach. They had an irrepressible sense of humor and fun. Every time they came to my photo studio they brightened my place with their shenanigans and laughter. Great memor...

Star

And when the spotlight comes your way
as it will eventually
rise up to the occasion
rise up and shine
you are perfect as you are
you were born a star

– Pardesi Pyara

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PHOTO: Alice is a superb dancer from NY. These images are from a shoot we did some years ago when she was visiting California.

Flow

Flow like water
with humility and softness
When you have the strength
to carve mountains into canyons
there is no need to proclaim your might
The world knows

–– Pardesi Pyara

Circled by your arms

When over my life’s way there falls the blight
Of sunless days, and nights of starless skies;
Enough for me, the calm and steadfast light
That softly shines within your loving eyes.

The world, for me, and all the world can hold
Is circled by your arms; for me there lies,
Within the lights and shadows of your eyes,
The only beauty that is never old.

– from a poem by James Weldon Johnson  (1871-1938)

Rising from the fire

It is a day for being thankful and I am deeply grateful that my dear friend Crystal is still here with us.

Still in her twenties, she was diagnosed with aggressive stage three breast cancer earlier this year. Like a Phoenix rising out of the fire, after months of chemo and a double mastectomy she is finally cancer free. There is still radiation and more surgeries ahead, but she fights on.

True to her creative and brave spirit, she is turning her health battles into art, and doing ...

Curves Ahead - Photo Essay

The ideals of beauty have changed over time, with the pendulum swinging from skinny to curvy and back.

The US first became obsessed with waiflike thinness a hundred years ago during the 1920s. The “flapper” was a slender woman with a boy like straight figure. 

Some women even went so far as to tightly bandage their breasts so they could appear more flat chested. That was also the first time it became acceptable for women to start cutting their hair short to mimic the boys...

Poetry Unsung

There is a vale which none hath seen,
Where foot of man has never been,
There love is warm, and youth is young,
And poetry is yet unsung.

And ever, if you hearken well,
You still may hear its vesper bell,
And tread of high-souled women go by,
Their thoughts conversing with the sky.

– from a poem by Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

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PHOTO: Mia dancing in my studio.

Two Are One

And a kindred nature,
Proclaim us to be mates,
Exposed to equal fates
Eternally;

And each may other help, and service do,
Drawing Love's bands more tight,
Service she ne'er shall rue
While one and one make two,
And two are one;

In such case only doth woman fully prove
Fully as woman can do,
What power there is in Love
Her inmost soul to move
Resistlessly.

– from a poem by Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

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PHOTO: <...