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RITUALS
During Paris Photo, we visited the grand Tina Barney retrospective at Jeu de Paume. Perhaps it was the time of year, but reading the captions about rituals left a lasting impression. As the wheels of life spin faster than ever, especially with the rise of AI, rituals and routines often weave through our days unnoticed. They slip into the rhythm of our lives, performed almost automatically and mechanically and unreflectively, as if activated by the mere sight of a date on the calendar. Yet they remain vital for existential experience, where centuries-old traditions mingle with modern reinventions. Some endure across generations; others are lost or reshaped along the way. 

The internet has brought foreign and ancient rituals into modern consciousness, allowing us, as global citizens, the privilege to select practices that resonate—whether to find integrity, connection, or transformation, or simply to bring meaning and order to existence. Some rituals endure across generations, while others fade or are reshaped over time.

In Rabindranath Tagore's stories, characters often wrestle with paradoxical dilemmas of identity in the face of religious and societal rituals, where tradition binds as much as it divides. Similarly, Virginia Woolf reveals how repetitive actions—family dinners, household chores, or personal routines—become rituals that offer structure and comfort and structure while masking deeper tensions. Even something as fundamental as breathing becomes ritualized through practices like Pranayama, where it becomes a conscious act of renewal and balance.

Through the lens of photography, rituals offer a unique way to explore what ties us together and what sets us apart. What rituals hold special meaning for you, and how do they come to life through your photographic practice?


01: Explore

Christian Marclay, Large Cassette Grid No.9, 2009cyanotype, 38 1/2 x 39″
Image Courtesy Fraenkel Gallery
Cyanotype
Cyanotype is one of photography’s earliest processes, a simple yet transformative technique that uses sunlight and iron salts to create deep blue images. Invented in 1842 by Sir John Herschel, it was first embraced by botanist Anna Atkins, who used it to document plant specimens in what is considered the first-ever photo book. Beyond its historical roots, cyanotype remains a tactile, almost meditative practice—one that turns exposure into an act of ritual. The process, reliant on time, light, and touch, echoes photography’s fundamental nature: the act of capturing fleeting moments and making them tangible. Today, artists continue to explore cyanotype’s potential, drawn to its handmade quality and elemental connection to the world around us.







Mika Horie, Untouched Snowscape, 2021Cyanotype on handmade Japanese Gampi paperc 25.8 x 22.8 cm
Image Courtesy of Ibasho Gallery


Joy Gregory, Girl Thing (2002 – 2005)




Meghann Riepenhoff, Ecotone #1409 (Bainbridge Island, WA Unknown Date of First Exposure + 12.30.21-01.02.22, Snowmelt and Mixed Precipitation), 2022



Priya Kambli, Untitled, 2020






The beauty of these cyanotype collages is that they are both hyper-realistic and indeterminable, resisting any fixed reading.

- Wu Chi-Tsung





WU Chi-Tsung, Cyano-Collage 119 (2021)










Sir John Herschel invented the cyanotype in 1842. The process depends on the photochemical reduction of ferric salts into ferrous salts leading to the formation of Prussian blue, an iron-based pigment. The process was used sporadically throughout the 19th century and more frequently in the twentieth century for the reproduction of architectural plans and technical drawings, called “blueprints."






Tarrah Krajnak talks about her exhibition ‘Rock, Paper, Sun’ which brings together new performance-based works that grew from several years of ritualized forms of writing and experimental photography. The works are grounded in ecopoetic thinking and the desire to access embodied forms of knowledge through attention to the environment, to the body’s presence, and to the rhythms of daily life. 




Artist Sean McFarland asks if photographs make us pay more or less attention to the world around us. The 2017 SECA Art Award recipient discusses how context helps determine what we see in an image and how a minimalist approach can produce more evocative representations.

02. Listen
For our audio feature, we’re listening to In A Photographic Life, Episode 338, Grant Scott explores photography as a ritual, sharing reflections from photographers worldwide. David Campany, now the creative director of ICP and a contributor to our birth issue, exemplifies this approach in his daily Instagram post. His writing and speaking are honest, sharp, and approachable, always connecting and clarifying ideas with a profound sense of clarity. As Campany reminds us, along this artistic journey, it’s vital to find your champions and be a champion—no matter your role or where you stand.





¨ I write about photography a lot and I am trying all the time not to provide the script for looking. I am trying to deepen and complexify and open things up, not package them in any way.¨

David Campany




In the next inspiring feature, Erykah Badu, celebrated musician and trained doula, shares her unique creative rituals that intertwine her artistry with her role as a healer. Known for her soulful music and profound connection to life's cycles, Badu reveals how her personal practices fuel her creative energy. While not directly tied to photography, her story offers a powerful exploration of how rituals—whether through music, birth work, or daily life—can inspire and sustain creativity in profound ways.




Photographed by Jamie Hawkesworth, Vogue, March 2023.


¨Rituals are essential to who I am as a person and as an artist. They help me listen inward and create space for ideas to flow.¨

Erykah Badu


03. Read

Our literary pick this month is The Use of Photography by Annie Ernaux and Marc Marie. Through photographing their moments after lovemaking, Ernaux and Marie create a ritual that captures desire and resists the passage of time. The book is a collaboration, with Ernaux’s writing alternating with that of Marie, the photographer and journalist. This interplay underscores the book’s central theme: the power of photography to hold onto what is transient, while also exposing the emotional weight of its passing.








¨The light from the flash gives the boot a devouring look. Makes me want to cut it out of the photo and stick it up somewhere as an illustration of male domination, though in reality my relationship with M. in no way correspsonds to this scene that is staged by the objects themselves.¨

THE SHOE IN THE LIVING ROOM, 15 MARCH 

¨I realize that I am fascinated by photos in the same way I’ve been fascinated, since childhood, by blood, semen and urine stains on sheets, or old mattresses, discarded on pavements; by the stains of wine or food embedded in the wood of sideboards, the stains of coffee or greasy fingers on old letters – the most material and organic kinds of stains.¨

RED SHAWL, 12 or 20 APRIL

¨I don´t know how to use the language of feelings while ´believing´it. When I try, it seems fake to me. I only know the language of things, of materials traces, visiable evidence. (Although I never stop trying to transmute it into words and ideas.) I wonder if contemplating and describing our photos is not a way of proving to myself that his love exists, and in the face of the evidence, the material proof they embody, of dodging the question for which I see no anser, ´Does he love me?´¨

BRUSSEL, HÔTEL DES ÉCRINS,
ROOM 125, 6 OCTOBER

04: Photobooks

Halo (Aperture)Rinko KawauchiIn recent years, Rinko Kawauchi’s exploration of the cadences of the everyday has begun to swing farther afield from her earlier photographs focusing on tender details of day-to-day living. In her series and resulting book Ametsuchi (Aperture, 2013), she concentrated mainly on the volcanic landscape of Japan’s Mount Aso, using a historic site of Shinto…

Malanka (Edition Patrick Frey)Yelena YemchukMalanka is Yelena Yemchuk’s sixth photobook, documenting the ancient Malanka ritual in western Ukraine. Shot in Crasna in 2019 and 2020, Yemchuk blends surreal imagery with themes of renewal and transition. Born in Kyiv, her work merges Eastern European heritage with post-Soviet realities. The book includes a short film, premiered at the Ukrainian Museum, and an essay by Ioana Pelehatǎi.

Once A Year (Dewi Lewis)
Homer SykesOnce a Year, Some Traditional British Customs was first published in 1977 establishing Homer Sykes as one of the UK’s leading young photographers. Over a period of almost seven years he travelled the country photographing around 100 traditional British customs, with over 80 appearing in the book. 

The Yanomami Struggle (Fondation Cartier)Claudia AndujarThe catalogue accompanying Claudia Andujar’s 2020 retrospective at the Fondation Cartier highlights her pivotal work with the Yanomami people of the Amazon. Since the 1970s, Andujar has captured their lives and fought for their territorial recognition, blending photography with advocacy. The catalogue features her images, personal notebooks, and texts by Andujar, curator Thyago Nogueira, and anthropologist Bruce Albert.

La España Oculta (Lunwerg Editores)Cristina García Roder"I tried to photograph the mysterious, true and magical soul of popular Spain in all its passion, love, humor, tenderness, rage, pain, in all its truth; and the fullest and most intense moments in the lives of these characters, as simple as they are irresistible, with all their inner strength"- Cristina Garcia Rodero

Mitos y Ritos (La Fabrica)Mario Cravo NetoMitos y Ritos by Mario Cravo Neto delves into the rituals and mythology of Bahia, blending African and Brazilian influences through evocative black-and-white photography that reflects the power of cultural tradition.


Wilder Mann (Thames & Hudson)Charles FrégerWilder Mann by Charles Fréger captures the striking rituals of European masquerades, where participants embody mythical and animalistic figures. Through powerful portraiture, Fréger explores the primal connection between humans and nature, offering a vivid look at these ancient, yet evolving traditions.


SODO Haiti (Datz Press)Phyllis Galembo
In the heart of Haiti there is a sacred place called Sodo, meaning “waterfall” in French. It is believed that the Virgin Mary appeared there amongst the foliage of a palm tree, to a farmer in 1840; the pilgrimage in Sodo was started with a new spiritual meaning, combined with the local religion. This book is full of the images from the spiritual ritual taken by Phyllis Galembo from 1997 to 2001.


Trilogy (GOST)Lu HanTrilogy, by Lu Nan draws together three series of the photographer’s work created over the course of 15 years; 'The Forgotten People', a haunting study of the living conditions of China’s psychiatric patients, 'On the Road', a document of the daily lives of Catholics in China and 'Four Seasons', a chronicle of the lives of rural peasants in Tibet.

Zaido (Steidl)
YuKari Chikura
Yukari Chikura’s Zaido captures a 1,300-year-old Japanese ritual, discovered on a pilgrimage after her father’s death. Through abstract snowscapes and striking portraits, she documents the dancers’ sacred offering, preserving a tradition of devotion and renewal.

05. From the Community
We came across Mary Frey’s Real Life Dramas (1984–1987) on her website, and the series immediately drew us in. The photographed scenes felt strikingly real, even though, as we later learned, they were carefully staged. This thoughtful balance of intention and authenticity compelled us to reach out. Last year, we had the pleasure of meeting Mary at Paris Photo during the launch of her latest book, My Mother, My Son published by TBW.