Your Bio

Why is it that I photograph?

* Photography is my medium of expressive art and my interest is in photography of extreme landscapes, the human condition (faces), and abstracts (close-up shots of everyday objects).

* Photography is my passion - it is how I see my world and make sense of it.
* Photography is my bliss-station - I am happiest when involved with it and when teaching it to others interested in learning about it.

* And Photography is my vehicle for helping making our world a better place by promoting tolerance and acceptance of 'all' people - for when people view my photographs (and do not know who I am or how I look like or that I speak with a slight accent or that I come from another country) - all they see is pure beauty - untinted by the biases and labels people sometimes are prone to put on in a hurry ...

I started photographing years ago because I needed to busy my mind with something creative.
I photograph now simply because and so that I can be understood.

Questions: e-mail me at - Parvphoto@Yahoo.com.

Peace and blessings,
Parv Sethi

Galleries

Edge of Light - A Series. 2011. :

Edge of Light - A Series. 2011.

Updated: Apr 12, 2011 3:11pm PST

Majestic Places & Spaces! : I was 13, maybe 14 years old; a lanky, scrawny teenager who was transitioning through what had seemed like, so many stages all at once. There was puberty, breaking-of-the-voice, friendships with boys, and of course a redefining of the distance from girls! As it turned out, I wasn't really drawn to the sorts of things my male friends seemed to be spending most of their time on - I was more interested in getting high with hiking and discussions about the meaning of life than with courting the opposite sex. And so began a period of sometimes unnerving solitude, when I spent a lot of my time in pursuit of things/ideas that interested 'me' - and not just ones that were deemed 'cool' by my peers. No siree - I wasn't about to be 'herded' anywhere :) About that time I discovered a place in the high mountains where after a strenuous hike, I could sit in a field of 'geodes', hammer them open, and find amazing crystals of quartz and amethyst -- I'd pack my saddle bags full with these rocks, and walk my heavily-laden bicycle back, 10 miles to home. Then came college and my first geology class. I remember thinking how odd it seemed that one could carve a career out of walking in beautiful places and studying rivers, glaciers, mountains! I was hooked ... 20 years later, as I look back on these photographs ... they each bespeak of all the reasons I chose to pursue geology, and now wouldn't have it any other way! These are some 'Majestic Places & Spaces' I have been blessed to have been in. I use these images (along with stories accompanying them!) in my Introductory Geology classes at the university where I teach. I am blatant, almost ruthless :) in 'leaving no stone unturned' in communicating my enthusiasm about the Earth and its richness and beauty as seen in these pics. I simply set the 'stage' so to speak and let the images do the talking -- it never fails to instill a sense of wonderment and a certain 'wanderlust' in the minds of my students - most of whom have not yet traveled beyond Virginia. I hear the 'doors of their minds' creaking open, the winds of change wafting in - softly yet surely, and I tell myself -- it's happening! And so, each semester I feel like I have 'spawned' a 125 students who are now keen observers of our precious planet. Yes - I stand guilty of 'infecting' my students' minds with wild and incredible vistas ... just so the Earth shall have a chance, and so that ... our children may too!

Majestic Places & Spaces!

I was 13, maybe 14 years old; a lanky, scrawny teenager who was transi ...

Updated: Feb 06, 2009 7:56pm PST

The Grand Canyon -- In a different light! : The Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona. It's a place where time seemingly stands still, yet has marched on endlessly for hundreds of millions of years. It's a place that doesn't really care about what a big-shot you may be in a corporate boardroom or elsewhere. Here all beings are equal, humbled and mystically reminded of the intricate connections we all share in the web of life. To try to photograph the vistas in this amphitheater is akin to tyring to describe a passionate kiss -- some things are best said unsaid and best remembered as experiences -- here is a supreme example of one! My best experience at the Canyon was sunrise on January 01, 2000 -- it was below-freezing temperature and I had just hiked up to Hopi Point to catch the first sun rays on this 'anthropogenically created, big-to-do day, Jan. 01, 2000, the start of a new millenium!', when I was greeted by a Korean couple (on their honeymoon) sitting inside their car waiting for sunrise. We chatted and the next thing we knew the magical sunlight was hitting the blood-red walls of steep sandstone cliffs, the mind-numbing wind-chill and Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture wafting out mutedly through the speakers of the Korean couples' car -- they politely asked me if they could listen to the music softly as they watched the sunrise and if their music would bother me -- to which I had replied -- "Let's open all the doors of your car and play that piece as loudly as your speakers can put out!"... and so the three of us sat there ... two Koreans and a Indian whose different life journeys had brought them to an intersection at the edge of the Canyon ... trying to 'fit-in' in this grandest violation of human life and scale ... quiet because the only thing that we could muster to share with the Canyon then was a 1812 piece of music by a man long gone!

The Grand Canyon -- In a different light!

The Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona. It's a place where time see ...

Updated: Mar 02, 2009 10:00am PST

Americana - A Photographic Tapestry! : This is my America - and these photographs are my souvenirs - from places I have visited in my search for that 'common thread of humanity' that inevitably binds us together. These photographic journeys have taken me to places both notable and obscure, and down paths well-traveled and well-hidden. From an old diner along Route 66 to the smile of a little girl holding a gemstone at a street festival - these images mean 'home' to me; this is my America - old and new, splendid and sordid, serious and indifferent, engaging and nonchalant, ever-changing yet timelessly similar. You may also notice my proclivity for taking close-ups; this is something that 'crept-up' on me in my photographic style, in the sense that I didn't realize that I was doing it until I examined a group of slides together on my light-box one night, and it made me think about 'why' was I being drawn to faces up close? And after many a month of pondering that question, I think I have the answer ... it is because each face is a work of beauty unto itself and worth examining with long, unbroken, continuous, unabashed stares ... and since the unspoken rules of our societal dynamics deem such 'studying' of faces improper (or perhaps even rude!) - I therefore study the faces after-the-fact -- through these photographs. These, then, are the photographs that calm me, and help center me when I read the news and sense a world going astray. These photos remind me of the commonality of 'human emotions' - laughter, tears, smiles, gazes - in people brown, white, black and every shade inbetween. Everyone, I'd like for you to meet - everyone!

Americana - A Photographic Tapestry!

This is my America - and these photographs are my souvenirs - from pla ...

Updated: Mar 02, 2009 10:02am PST

My Hawaii -- Molten lava flows! : Lava flows meeting the Pacific Ocean. I had flown to Hawaii on getting word that there had been several surface 'break-outs' of lava flows which otherwise are not visible as they flow to the ocean through underground lava tubes (lava tunnels). Equipped with a gas mask, a face shield, tripod, camera gear, Powerbars and as much Gatorade I could carry - I hiked for about 6 miles to reach this spot from where I could photograph active flows from within 5-10 feet! I took sunset shots, then camped out close to the lava flows and photographed them through the night. I was treated to a full moon rising over this eerie but awe-inspiring theater where the darkness of night was interrupted only by the hissing of poisonous gases from the lava flows and explosions of steam as the lava met the cold ocean. All of these shots were on Fuji Velvia film taken with a Nikon F-100 body - which I fully expected to have simply melted due to the immense radiant heat being so close to the lava flows; amazingly the camera and film survived, to help me get home some incredible shots! My souvenir from the trip? Hiking boots with most of the tread on the soles burned out! Oh - and I also met another photographer (named - Stumpy! Really!) ... but his is another story, you see - Stumpy, had been photographing similar ocean enteries of lava when he got a bit too close to an explosion that sent shards of razor-sharp basalt flying through the air! Three fingers later ... well!

My Hawaii -- Molten lava flows!

Lava flows meeting the Pacific Ocean. I had flown to Hawaii on getting ...

Updated: Mar 25, 2011 8:16am PST

The Nagano Snow-monkeys, March 2008, Japan. :

The Nagano Snow-monkeys, March 2008, Japan.

Updated: Aug 06, 2008 7:06am PST

My India - The Ageless! : I have been very fortunate to have been schooled in India, Europe and the U.S., with more years of my life spent living outside than in India. I grew up there, through my teen years, but my most formative moments have come not from any one country but from a 'progressive juxtapositioning' of concepts and belief systems against a backdrop of different cultures that I have experienced. My world-view stems from a true amalgamation, a blending of things that made (and continue to make) 'sense' to me -- be it in something as innocuous as my greeting to a stranger on the street to something as personal as why was my marriage was a 'love marriage' as opposed to an 'arranged' one as is the norm in India! My regular visits to my parents in India have repeatedly thrust me center-stage into a society that senses me as a 'local guy' - in as much as I 'walk the walk' and 'talk the talk', however, my 'view' of the India I visit is not entirely from within but from the outside as well -- I am constantly switching back-and-forth between contrasting cultures in my own mind even as I blend seamlessly and almost anonymously with the multitudes on the street and in the bazaars. Studying my photographs and the content and manner in which I composed them, reveals much to me about myself, and about where I am in this unending yearning for a clear(er) definition of the self, of myself. Just like the way in which the 'act of writing' forces a writer to think through 'the cobwebs of ambiguity' in his/her mind and 'pen down' thoughts clearly and forcefully; similarily photography for me forces my mind to 'take a stance, a position' which in turn helps me discover where I am and where I have been and also offers just a glimpse of where I seem headed to. There are times when I recognize my roots in India, yet there are also times when I feel 'a homeless of sorts' -- and the whole key for me has been to grow to a point where a 'home' is what I make of the place that I am in, to 'bloom where planted' and to recognize that we all have two families that deserve equal attention -- one that we are brought into this world in and the other being the people we are surrounded by - in the community, the workplace, the Little League, the YMCA! A word about photographing in India. One of my heroes (photographically speaking) has been Steve McCurry (famed for his work covering Asia and the Far East for National Geographic and author of a stunning book simply titled - 'Portraits'). Steve once commented on his experiences photographing India for over a decade and he summed it very thoughtfully; he said - "In the West everone is very private about everything and very few things are sacred. In India, nobody has much privacy, and everything is sacred!". My own thoughts and photographs echo Steve's viewpoint but I do have a bit to add to his sensibility. I have often mused about why photographing in India seems so much more colorful, pungent, noisy, vibrant, hopeful and tragic at the same time as compared to the West. The best I have been able to come up with is by thinking of the two worlds as 'two lovers' - in the West, the lovers are waltzing, mindful of the personal space and nuances that somehow mean sophistication for some, whereas in India - the two lovers are in the act of eloping, frenzied with life, dancing not simply holding hands as in a poised waltz, but 'clutching'. These photographs, to me, mean it is this 'clutching' that I must do more of -- so I can feel each moment of this 'certain wild and precious life'! Namaste!

My India - The Ageless!

I have been very fortunate to have been schooled in India, Europe and ...

Updated: Oct 07, 2010 12:47pm PST

Athens, Greece -- A street perspective! :

Athens, Greece -- A street perspective!

Updated: Sep 25, 2008 5:10pm PST

Japan - Spirit Nation, March 2008. :

Japan - Spirit Nation, March 2008.

Updated: Mar 11, 2011 9:48am PST

This is my Japan! :

This is my Japan!

Updated: Aug 06, 2008 7:05am PST

The Zen of Rocks :

The Zen of Rocks

Updated: Aug 07, 2008 7:13am PST

Abstract a.k.a. Whimsical Musings! : I'd like to die during sunset, a stunning, fiery, red-emblazoned open sky - the kind you get to see in Arizona, Utah, Montana -- big spaces with big skies! We'll see if I am to be that lucky! My ashes - no finer place to disperse them than Big Sur, on the Pacific Coast in Northern California with Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture blaring out loud and then one 'big' party to celebrate the departure of my spirit to that 'top secret, classified meeting grounds of kindred spirits'! No, I have never been preoccupied with 'death', just aware of the certainty of it. In fact, as I approach 40 next year, I sense a certain quickening - of the mind, of my heartbeats, of being more courageous and wise about sifting through the unending to-do-lists to focus on the really important stuff - I did that yesterday - took the time to visit with a friend of mine 30 miles away, sat on the porch swing and drank wine - and then the neighbors joined us and there we were 'touching each other's lives' and having a celebration of the ties that bind us, anchor us, together and bring richness to our days. These photographs are my promises to Mother Earth and Father Time - that I have 'not' been speeding through life hurriedly and frantic, but that I 'listen' to the 'voices in my head', or 'to what my rice krispies tell me', or 'the tea leaves at the bottom of my cup' -- that I 'see' in the beyond, and in the within, and hear - well - of course - both the infra-and the ultrasonics - from the low droning of whale sounds while diving in the Pacific to the ear-splitting lightening strikes in the tornado-alley in Kansas - all sounds that rattle me out of any complacency my 9-5 teaching job may manage to beguile me into. These abstracts are therefore - the 'more real' of things in my life, and my wish is that such abstracts always hold their realism for me until that fateful day in the future ... when some ashes will find the wind in the Pacific, with lilting notes of Tchaikovsky's 1812 piece and a bunch of colorfully-dressed people eager to get home and drink some very fine vino!.

Abstract a.k.a. Whimsical Musings!

I'd like to die during sunset, a stunning, fiery, red-emblazoned open ...

Updated: Mar 05, 2010 7:34pm PST

My India - The Spiritual! :

My India - The Spiritual!

Updated: Oct 07, 2010 12:50pm PST

Story for the day ... : What is it that nudges people to share the beautiful things/moments/spaces in their lives with others? I have felt that tangible 'rush' to the head while standing at the mouth of a glacier in Alaska, solitary and so wishing I had someone to put my hand on his/her shoulder and exclaim - "Isn't that just a glorious view?". I have felt it watching the exuberant finish of SeaBiscuit (while watching the movie in my study) at his final race, and that particular summers day in Utah when I continued hiking in a torrential downpour to see the Delicate Arch (while all other hikers turned back) and then for a few seconds the sun had shone through, illuminating the arch and producing the most gorgeous rainbow I have ever seen smack in the middle of the arch and I photographed it! I wanted to share that moment too but I was alone then - thoroughly drenched but grinning ear-to-ear, soaking-in that beautiful moment. And so it is ... with all the changes/growth/evolutions, one thing that has survived in my life is wanting to 'share' - I guess it must be one of these 'default settings' from the factory for our species :), and so this gallery is about 'sharing' - the photographs that I continue to take/create ... these are views that have caught my eye and perhaps even made me go weak-in-the-knees for a moment or two ... these are pics that chronicle the 'regular days' of my life these days -- these pics may not be the 'sexiest' ones out there ... but they are of 'my' days, of the town I live in, people I meet and allow me to offer my bit of that 'lowest common denominator' that threads through all our lives - no matter where we live ... 'humanity'. Welcome!

Story for the day ...

What is it that nudges people to share the beautiful things/moments/sp ...

Updated: Aug 20, 2011 5:38am PST

password protected gallery

A MATTER OF ART - Film photographs, April 2012.

password protected gallery

MAD BEATS Dec. 2012 DJ - Adrian & Sound - Jon

Updated: Jan 03, 2013 9:21pm PST