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TANAGARH TEMPLE, INDIA (2/12)
Référence :
Color photograph of Baijnath Temple in Himachal Pradesh, India, by Ferrante Ferranti.
The artist explores the rites associated with the Elements – water, fire, air – in sanctuaries inhabited by the Spirit. Ablutions and immersions, gestures of purification or prayer of Hindu or Buddhist, Hebrew or Jain, Christian or Muslim faithful, embody matter, and help us to cross the mirrors of appearances to access the Saints of Holies.
Length : 0.39 in / 1 cm
Height : 35.43 in / 90 cm
Width : 23.62 in / 60 cm
Weigth : 2.2 lb / 1 kg
Artist : Ferrante Ferranti
Technique: Digital photography
Support: Pigment print on baryta paper (Canson Fine Art Baritta), laminated on Dibond
Dimensions: 90 x 60 cm
Number of copies: 12 signed and numbered prints
Year: 2011
Inspiration: At the foot of the Himalayan foothills, the temple of Baijnath unfolds its stone silhouette, sober and vertical, turned towards the sky. Built in the thirteenth century and dedicated to Shiva, it embodies the permanence of the sacred in the heart of a landscape crossed by wind and light.
In this photograph, Ferrante Ferranti isolates the structure from the surrounding tumult to reveal its architectural essence. The lines of the Shikhara rise rigorously, while the sculpted surface captures the subtle variations of light. The stone seems both dense and vibrant, loaded with ancient gestures.
The photographer’s gaze is not limited to the building: he captures its inner breathing. The reliefs, patinated by the centuries, become a mineral writing — a memory inscribed in the material. The space around the temple, open to the mountains, reinforces the feeling of elevation and silence.
Through this image, the temple appears as an axis between earth and sky, a spiritual anchor where time seems to be suspended. Ferranti offers less a description than a contemplative experience, inviting us to feel the quiet strength of a place inhabited by prayer.

Ferrante Ferranti
FRANCE
Born January 13, 1960 in Algeria, of a Sardinian mother and a Sicilian father. He took his first photograph at the age of eighteen, a wave in Belle-Île-en-Mer. Passionate about Fernand Pouillon’s book, Les Pierres Sauvages, he began training as an architect in Toulouse, which he completed at Paris-UP6 in 1985 with a diploma in Theaters and scenography in the Baroque era. Traveling photographer, he has been involved for thirty years with Dominique Fernandez in a joint exploration of the Baroque and the different layers of civilizations, from Syria to Bolivia via Sicily and Saint Petersburg. His photographs dialogue with the texts of the writer, who defines him in the album Itinerrances (Actes Sud, 2013) as “the inventor of a language which links the sun to the ruins, in search of the meaning hidden in the forms” .


