Born and raised in England, Keith Prue has lived and worked on four continents and traveled to more than forty countries. Keith was introduced to photography in his early teens, and after a hiatus of many years, his passion was rekindled while attending workshops with Ernesto Bazan. He has also studied with Ben Lifson and Aline Smithson. Keith resides in Boston.
In my formative years, I was intrigued with capturing events with my camera. Inherently visual, creative, and numerate, I was drawn into polar worlds of art and business. For many years a happy confluence arose from these seemingly discordant traits. Given the extraordinary opportunity for travel that working for an international finance firm allowed, I delighted in recording my world through pictures, as it unfolded and expanded over many countries and continents.
More recently, I have taken to capturing my world from a deeper place, the passage of time waking my quest for the truth of existence. Unlike earlier photographs, my current work acts as a conduit to explore my humanness. This gives me license to engage life outside the studio in all its rawness.
When I’m looking through the lens, alive to the anticipation and excitement of seeing anew, there is a mysterious convergence of my inner and outer worlds, and I'm drawn into a meditative state. Any preconceived ideas I may have about conveying meaning merely act as signposts or pointers, rather than rigid constructions, to be discarded during this moment of wonder. Completely present to events unfolding in front of me, I feel the thrill of connecting with a totally unique manifestation of life never to be repeated.
Magical Thicket
The south of India is a magical place. There is a daily bustle of people, sacred cows, stray dogs and more dogs, alive on almost every street corner seemingly day and night, plying their trade open to view and freely shared. Highways vibrate with bicycles, auto rickshaws and buses transporting goods and chattel, filling the air with a cacophony of sound and choking fumes.
I have been visiting Tiruvannamalai and the coast of Tamil Nadu since 2005, and during my visits I am drawn time and again into the thicket of this world, my senses overrun by the fullness of life, transporting me far from my western roots. I was initially attracted to this part of the world due to its deep spiritual beliefs. Mount Arunachala in Tiruvannamalai considered a holy mountain and pilgrimage destination for Hindus.
Magical Thicket is an ongoing project reflecting the contradictions I feel about India. When there, the assault to western senses can be overwhelming and the thought of creature comforts appealing, but when departed, the memory of magical sounds and senses draws me back in like a bee to a honey pot.
