Jytotirlingam is a collaborative documentary project between photographers Vibhav Kapoor and Conor Ryan Kelly Martin along with scholars Bibek Debroy and Amit Kapoor.
The Jyotirlingams are ancient temples dedicated to Shiva where self-manifested shivalingams are worshipped – “jyoti” means “light, radiance” and “lingam” means “sign, phallus.” These are situated across India in Deoghar, Varanasi, Srisailam, Rameshwaram, Bhimashankar, Tryambak, Grishneshwar, Ujjain, Omkareshwar, Somnath, Dwarka, and Kedarnath.
Kelly and Kapoor travelled across these temples in the auspicious month of Saavan in 2023 to capture the essence of darshan in these revered sacred sites. All the photographs were Shot on iPhone, which proved crucial in capturing the fast-paced and intimate nature of these public spaces.
This image-text project was published by Penguin Random House, New Delhi in August 2024 and is available to buy online or in bookstores across India.
