WORLDVIEWS: Ritual
Over the past 25 years Katzenstein has traveled five continents and many islands in between, exploring the daily lives and communal rituals of many diverse cultures. With the honesty of a documentary photographer and the eye of an artist, he freezes moments of revelatory experience and evokes their essential spirit. His work has been described as "poetic realism" and is infused with the sensitive, penetrating, essentially humble personality of the artist.
This body of work is a visual journey to lands distant and nearby led by a master traveler. Katzenstein has photographed Hindu ceremonies in rural India, Santeria rituals in Cuba, Zulu dancers in South Africa and soldiers in Peru. He has witnessed Easter processions in Guatemala, Buddhist festivals in Bhutan, Islamic ceremonies in Egypt, Jewish worship in Israel, and shamanism in the South Pacific islands of Vanuatu. Katzenstein's photographs, wherever they are made, celebrate the astonishing variety and essential unity of human life.
Katzenstein is fascinated by the people he meets and deeply respectful of their ways. He neither judges nor heroicises his subjects; instead he searches intently for their souls. His camera can be confrontational or invisible, but he is always sensitive to subtleties of character and human relationships. Even his landscapes are spiritual explorations, placing the viewer in unknown lands.
- Mark Randall President, World Studio Foundation