The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali: Effortless Being tr. by Alistari Shearer, Photographs

Richard Lannoy is the author of several books on India, including The Speaking Tree: A Study of Indian Culture and Society, published by Oxford University Press in 1971 and still in print in India. He was on the founding staff of the ICA, London (1950-52), where he set up a celebrated forum, the Independent Group. He became a freelance photographer working for various international magazines, and on assignment for United Nations to the Palestinian refugee camps in Gaza (1952). He became seriously interested in India back in 1947, but began his work there, and particularly in Benares, in 1953, and on several subsequent visits until 1960, returning again in the Eighties, but completing his magnum opus on Benares in 1999. His thinking on Benares has never ceased for close on half a century, despite the infrequency of opportunities to reside there. He lives in Batah, and equally regards his work as author, photographer and painter as ways to advance a holistic view of life.