Jasper Johal

Angel

There are two schools of thought when it comes to photography, “discover” versus “create”.

Some photographers thrive on capturing the world as they find it, “discovering” beautiful moments. Brassaï’s night time photos of Paris in the 1920s, and Henri Cartier-Bresson with his street photography and “decisive moment” are early proponents of this.

But other artists treat photography almost like painting, “creating” an image that at first only exists in their im...

Finding Balance

Sweet, there is nothing left to say
But this, that love is never lost,
Keen winter stabs the breasts of May
Whose crimson roses burst his frost,
Ships tempest-tossed
Will find a harbour in some bay,
And so we may.

– from a poem by Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)

Lioness in the grass

PHOTO: Cheyenne was not an advance yogi, or a highly trained dancer. But she is a published model.

When she was visiting Los Angeles she emailed me. She loved my Body as Temple photographs and was curious to see if we might be able to create some interesting images with her.

I picked her up from her Beverly Hills hotel and we played around for a couple of hours. Instead of trying to match others, I told her to just have fun moving. To be creative, without judgement. Even childish....

Ending

Evening arrives, glowing with color
Shimmering clouds hover on the horizon
Constantly moving, like jewels draped on a dancer’s body

Why lament the end of day?
Why not celebrate instead the coming of night?

Hiding within the sadness of every ending
lies the tremulous anticipation of every beginning

Darkest periods
yield the brightest lessons

– Pardesi Pyara

PHOTO: Julina packed a bag full of cool jewelry and scarves o...

BALLERINA

Ballerinas are usually very slender and appear to be frail and soft. Nothing could be further from the truth. Ballerinas are some of the strongest athletes I have worked with. It takes incredible strength to float on the tips of one’s toes and make it look effortless!

Back Beauty

It seems the American culture has a tendency to obsess over large breasts or chiseled abs. But it is often a strong beautiful back that catches my eye.

In yoga we realize how much of a body’s strength comes from the back. Best of all, most exercises and yoga poses that are designed to strengthen the back also inevitably work the entire core, including the stomach.

PHOTO: An example of playing with window light.

Normally shooting directly into a sunlit wind...

Circus woman

There is a section on Santa Monica beach, in California, known as the "Green". It is a place where acro yogis, dancers and circus people gather together and perform every weekend. 

One day I was hanging out at the Green and chatting with a woman who happened to be sitting next to me as we watched the free show. I admired a particularly gifted performer. My companion beamed proudly and said that was her daughter. 

That is how I met Angelica Bongivani, one of the most tale...

Dancing with myself

When in the morning’s misty hour,
When the sun beams gently o’er each flower;
When thou dost cease to smile benign,
And think each heart responds with thine,
When seeking rest among divine,
Forget me not.

– from a poem by Ann Plato, one of the earliest African American women to publish a collection of poems (1841)

PHOTO: This image is from a shoot I did with a soulful and expressive yogi named Karina eight years ago, when I was living in California.

Inst...

PINUP ART

PINUP ART:

World War II was responsible for a lot of young US men going overseas to fight.

Being away from wives and girl friends was not good for morale. Surprisingly the US army decided to unofficially encourage the dissemination of “pinup” art to boost morale. The term pinup was coined in the early 1940s because this art ended up being “pinned” onto the barrack walls, (and even painted onto airplane fuselages!).

An artist named George Petty, working for Esquire ma...

Beauty

If ever any beauty I did see,
Which I desired, and got, ’twas but a dream of thee.

My face in thine eye, thine in mine appears,
And true plain hearts do in the faces rest;

If our two loves be one, or, thou and I
Love so alike, that none do slacken, none can die.

–– from a poem by John Donne (1572 – 1631)

Courage

Above the ponds, beyond the valleys,
The woods, the mountains, the clouds, the seas,
Farther than the sun, the distant breeze,
The spheres that wilt to infinity

The one whose thoughts are like skylarks taken wing
Across the heavens mornings in full flight
Who hovers over life, understanding without effort
The language of flowers and mute things.

– from a poem by Charles Baudelaire (1821–1867)

PHOTO: My dear friend Crystal is such a ray of sunshine! ...

Titibhasana variation

Maria’s strength as an Ashtanga yogi is legendary. We have done dozens of advertising shoots together but the photos I love the most are the art images we created, free of commercial constraints. This photograph was published in one of my Body as Temple art calendars.

Some of Maria’s family are pretty conservative, and they gave her grief for shooting nudes. When she was younger she let that affect her. But now that she is older, she quite frankly, “doesn’t give a damn”. Maria...

Balance inside and out

“Thousands of candles can be lit from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared.” –– Buddha

PHOTO: Caroline showing her beautiful balance in Padangusthasana pose. (This yoga pose is from the Bikram series. Ashtanga yogis have a different pose by that name.)

Flow

“Pull the thorns from your heart. Then you will see the rose gardens within you.” — Rumi, Ghazal

Dancing upside down

From the wreck of the past, which hath perish’d,
Thus much I at least may recall,
It hath taught me that what I most cherish’d
Deserved to be dearest of all:

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)

Phenomenal woman

It’s in the arch of my back,
The sun of my smile,
The ride of my breasts,
The grace of my style.
I’m a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That’s me.

– Maya Angelou

Solitude

THOUGH the day of my destiny’s over,
And the star of my fate hath declined,
Thy soft heart refused to discover
The faults which so many could find.

Though thy soul with my grief was acquainted,
It shrunk not to share it with me,
And the love which my spirit hath painted
It never hath found but in thee.

– Lord Byron (1788–1824)

Tiger pose

The forest, letting me walk amongst its naked
limbs, had me on my knees again in silence
shouting – yes, yes my holy friend, let your
splendour devour me.

–– Hafez, translated by Daniel Ladinsky

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PHOTO: A timeless photo of Shawn from almost a decade ago. Yogini, writer, and a poet herself, Shawn visited my studio when I was living in Venice Beach, California.

IG: 2021-04-19 21:33:32 +0000 UTC View Post

Veil dance

When You and I behind the Veil are past,
Oh, but the long, long while the World shall last,
Which of our Coming and Departure heeds
As the Sea's self should heed a pebble-cast.

–– from the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, translated by Edward FitzGerald (1859)

Memories

Ah dream too bright to last!
Ah starry Hope! that didst arise
But to be overcast!

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

In what ethereal dances
By what eternal streams.

–– Edgar Allan Poe (1809 — 1849)

Two dancers

Alexis and Jacqui dancing together. One of the early shoots when I first built the Venice studio. The second photo shows what it’s really like doing a shoot like this.

Timeless

Sancta Maria! turn thine eyes
Upon the sinner's sacrifice
Of fervent prayer and humble love,
From thy holy throne above.

At morn, at noon, at twilight dim
Maria! thou hast heard my hymn.
In joy and wo, in good and ill
Mother of God! be with us still.

When my hours flew gently by,
And no storms were in the sky,
My soul, lest it should truant be —
Thy love did guide to thine and thee.

Now, when clouds of Fate o'ercast
All my Present, and my Past...

Moving meditation

Allow ourself
to sink into this moment
Fill our lungs with this instant
Live fully in the now
All else is illusion
conjured by our mind

–– Pardesi Pyara

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PHOTO: Kate flowing through her beautiful practice in my studio.

IG: @mclambertime 

Unentangle

No matter how hard the road
how steep the obstacles
Each day we unentangle ourselves
from our hesitations
from our doubts
and rise up

– Pardesi Pyara

Vintage Body as Temple

Memories! A print from my first art show for “The Body as Temple” that introduced this series of yoga nudes.

Beauty of a woman

The beauty of a woman
isn’t in the clothes she wears,
The figure that she carries,
or the way she combs her hair.
The beauty of a woman
must be seen from in her eyes;
Because that’s the doorway to her heart,
the place where love resides

– Audrey Hepburn

Cocoon

Fear not the world
Show them your vulnerable creation
Emerge, discard the cocoon
Its time for the butterfly to take wing

–– Pardesi Pyara

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PHOTO: From a shoot last year in California. Crystal found a new thing to play with in my studio.

Instagram: @mustbecrystal 

Liberate

We, unaccustomed to courage
exiles from delight
live coiled in shells of loneliness
until love leaves its high holy temple
and comes into our sight
to liberate us into life.

–– Maya Angelou

Pregnant dancing

"Don't curse the darkness, light a candle." – Confucius

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PHOTO: My dear friend Leah is an amazing dancer and one of the best Pilates teachers in Southern California. I have photographed her for several publications over the years. She also came and created beautiful art nudes, some of which have appeared in my Body as Temple calendars. This image is from her first pregnancy.

Trance dance

Ah starry Hope! that didst arise
But to be overcast!

And all my days are trances
And all my nightly dreams
Are where thy grey eye glances
And where thy footstep gleams --
In what ethereal dances
By what eternal streams.

–– Edgar Allan Poe (1809 — 1849)