Mr. Justin Guariglia, Professional Photographer Visit This Photographer's Web Site: http://www.guariglia.com Born in 1974 in Maplewood, New Jersey, Justin Guariglia resides in New York. He lived in Venice, Beijing, Hong Kong, Singapore and Tokyo for nine years (1995–2005). At the age of twenty-one, he went to learn Mandarin Chinese in Beijing, where he took up photography. He did an internship with Magnum Photos in New York, where he was first exposed to the documentary photography world. In 1998, he returned to Asia to begin working on freelance commissions in Hong Kong for National Geographic Society, Time, and Newsweek. In 1999-2000, Guariglia’s work was nominated for the International Center of Photography’s “Young Photographer of the Year” Infinity Award; he was given an Eddie Adams “Newsweek” award and was named by Photo District News as one of the top “30 Young Photographers Under 30.” In 2001, feeling overwhelmed by the onslaught of the Information Age, Guariglia began to examine the calming properties of the philosophy of Zen Buddhism. Legend has it that Buddhism came to China by way of the Indian monk named Bodhidharma, the 38th disciple of Buddha who came to the Shaolin Temple 1,500 years ago. Here he gave birth not only to the branch of Buddhism known as Zen, but to kung fu, a physical practice designed to focus one’s mind, body, and spirit to work as one and induce a state of Zen enlightenment in the practitioner. Going to the source of Zen to explore this subject, Guariglia worked closely with the very closed society of monks at the Shaolin Temple in China. These monks practice kung fu and Buddhist teachings as vehicles to attain Zen enlightenment. As the first foreigner to get access to the Shaolin Temple in this way, Guariglia began experimenting with video, sound, and still photography of monks practicing traditional kung fu methods and the mudras (Indian hand meditations). Guariglia’s video installations, in color and black and white, occasionally with sound, are often slowed to allow the viewer to examine and experience the energy and spirit of the centuries-old movements practiced by the monks. In this ongoing work, which explores the vehicles, triggers, and states of Zen enlightenment, Guariglia attempts to “instill a greater sense of balance, inner peace and oneness within people and the world around us, through contact with these otherwise elusive experiences.” |
