Artist
"I don't believe in art. I believe in artists."
Marcel Duchamp
Artist Bio
Priyatam is a San Francisco based figurative artist, with over 15 years of practice rooted in the human body, nature, and the contemplative life. Shaped by a personal practice of non-duality, poetry, self-inquiry, and permaculture at his art studio on a creekside mountain in Northern California, his process is less about seeing and more about witnessing and surrendering to the decisive moment.
Priyatam's photographic journey began in Boston, where he studied documentary photography and developed a rigorous foundation in observational practice and learning to be present with the world before intervening in it. He discovered the work of Sebastio Salgado, Henry Cartier Bresson, Dorothea Lange, and many street and documentary photographers. For over six years he was a part of the Boston Photography Center. Early workshops with masters at the Provincetown Center for Fine Arts, including BD Colen and David Hilliard at the Provincetown Center for Fine Arts, deepened his understanding of the photograph as an intimate psychological and narrative space.
In 2013, he moved to Berkeley and took turns visiting Northern California, a turning point. The redwood forests and coastal landscapes of Mendocino and the Sonoma coast and their raw light, coastal fog, and cathedral stillness pulled his practice toward the figurative. Inspired by Edward Weston's for the body as landscape, Ruth Bernhard's tender and luminous treatment of the human form, and Spencer Tunick's vision of collective vulnerability in the natural world, he began making photographs that dissolved the boundary between figure and earth and finding early recognition through Open Studios, a juried first-place award at the Mendocino Art Center, and exhibitions at the Gualala Art Center. After the pandemic he relocated to San Francisco, showing in Open Studios and receiving acceptance from local galleries, including the Drawing Room SF's alternative process photography exhibit. Bodyscapes explores the human figure in communion with earth, water, and light, recomposed across encaustic, photography, and superimposed projections of photographs. Geometry of Dance—pole dancers emerging from darkness into light and shadow, their forms tracing arcs of geometry and grace, was accepted into Santa Fe Art Week, marking his arrival on a national stage and a continuous inner journey revealing the oneness beneath every duality.
His multi-media art and photography has shown in over 25 exhibitions. He continues to expand his practice across alt process photography, encaustic painting, and figure drawing, working on a variety of paper, metal, and large-scale projections. He makes his own prints using a medium format camera and a digital darkroom built on open-source technologies. His series are not collections of individual images but continuous inner journeys, recomposed across mediums to reveal new meaning, and the oneness beneath every duality.
Artist Statement
I am inspired by the shape of human bodies in nature, our light and shadows, and our relationship to oneness. I see non-duality in every duality. I start with no assumptions of the final composition—I surrender. My practice of art, poetry, self inquiry, and permaculture on a creekside mountain influences my process: I discover our relationship with nature not by thinking, but by allowing the moment to be born—by witnessing, by being here now. The compositions come later in a discovery that comes alive in my studio, connecting my inner journeys—not any work by itself.
My process continues as I discover this relationship through different mediums, including photography, printmaking, drawing, and encaustic painting. My work is often experimental and process-driven, as it evolves across these mediums and surfaces: physical, digital, paper, cotton, metal, and projections, reimagining the original moment, recomposing the parts to discover a new meaning. I start with no assumptions of beauty or the final composition. I introspect the evolution of the human figure and spirit.
They remind me of my own duality: I can only create something if I'm not thinking—Creation happens when the thinker and thinking become
All artwork displayed here are copyrighted. Do not use without written permission.
The Geometry of Dance I
alt process photography
The Geometry of Dance II
alt process photography
The Geometry of Dance IV
alt process photography
The Geometry of Dance V
alt process photography
The Geometry of Dance VI
alt process photography
The Geometry of Dance VII
alt process photography
The Geometry of Dance VIII
alt process photography
The Geometry of Dance IX
alt process photography
The shape of Belonging
alt process photography
Shadow Sisters
alt process photography
She dances with the morning light
alt process photography
Elemental Rebirth
alt process photography
She rises, we rise
alt process photography
The Rhythm between Us
alt process photography
Elemental Rebirth
alt process photography
The moment she found herself
alt process photography
In this Light she is whole
alt process photography
The Art of falling up
alt process photography
The Light between Us
alt process photography
Grace & Shadow
alt process photography, multiple exposures
When Shadowns Dance
photography
Elemental Rebirth
photography
Surrender & Rebirth I
aphotography
Surrender & Rebirth II
photography
Surrender & Rebirth III
photography
Elemental Rebirth
photograph, multiple exposures
Chlorophylia
mixed media
Resurgence
photograph, multiple exposures
Call of the wilderness
photograph, multiple exposures
Silverlight I
photograph
Silverlight I
photograph
Resurrection
mixed media, rice paper
Treemorpher
encaustic, mixed-media
The lost Queen of Sierras
photograph, multiple exposures
Do you dream in color?
encaustic, mixed media
shown at gallery
Shiva Shakti, self portrait
drawing, charcoal
Rebirth
drawing, charcoal
Shakti Rising III
photograph
Shakti Rising II
mixed media
Bodouir Bodyscapes
I - photograph
Bodouir Bodyscapes
II - photograph
Bodouir Bodyscapes
III - photograph
Bodouir Bodyscapes
IV - photograph
Bodouir Bodyscapes
VI - photograph
Bodouir Bodyscapes
X - photograph
Bodouir Bodyscapes
XI - photograph
Bodouir Bodyscapes
XIII - photograph
Bodouir Bodyscapes
V - photograph
Bodouir Bodyscapes
IX - photograph
Transcendent Threads
photograph
Strife and Serenity
photograph
Bodouir Bodyscapes
XV - photograph
Magdalene
mixed media, with caroline holmes
shown at gallery
Blue sunset
mixed media, with caroline holmes
Into the Caves
mixed media, with caroline holmes
shown at gallery
Bodouir Bodyscapes
XVI - photograph
Mountains of Resilience: Beauty After the Blaze
photograph
Forest Caress: Water's Embrace
photograph
Emergence
encaustic, mixed-media
Shakti Rising I
mixed media
In Search of light
drawing, charcoal
Cobb mountain calling
photograph
Boudoir bodyscapes III
photograph
Boudoir bodyscapes IV
photograph
Boudoir bodyscapes V
photograph
Bodouir Bodyscapes
XIX - photograph
Bodouir Bodyscapes
XIX - photograph
Bodouir Bodyscapes
XXIII - photograph
bird conscisousness
oil painting
Dedication
encaustic, mixed-media
Peony garden
Drawing, Charcoal
Sensual cycles
Drawing, Charcoal
Sunset on Boggs
photograph
Forest Whisperer
photograph
Home again
photograph
After Snow
photograph
Montana Blues I
photograph
Montana Blues II
photograph
Montana Blues III
photograph
Sovereign Grace
drawing, charcoal
Surrender at Atitlan I
photograph
Surrender at Atitlan II
photograph
Calling Ancestors III
photograph
Silverlight II
photograph
Silverlight IV
photograph
I believe I can fly
Charcoal on paper
In Stillness, I believe
Charcoal on paper
Who Am I?
Charcoal on paper
Awake II
photograph
Awake III
photograph
Awake IV
photograph
whispering trails
drawing, charcoal
dusk
drawing, charcoal
winter solstice
drawing, charcoal
surrender in sedona II
photograph
surrender in sedona I
photograph
dreamer's orbit
mixed media
I can't breathe
mixed media
Meditation
mixed media, canvas
Hope
photograph
After the fire I
photograph
After the fire II
photograph
Ascension
photograph
shown at gallery
Through the light
photograph
shown at gallery
Restoring what is left
photograph
shown at gallery
Through the light
photograph
shown at gallery
Through the light
photograph
shown at gallery
Resurgence
photograph
shown at gallery
The Window
photograph
After fire
photograph
shown at gallery
Abandon I
photograph
Abandon II
photograph
shown at gallery
Parallel worlds, Gayatree Series
mixed media, with caroline holmes
Fairy I, Gayatree Series
photograph
Fairy II, Gayatree Series
photograph
Worship, Gayatree Series
photograph
Awakening I, Gayatree Series
photograph
shown at gallery
Awakening II, Gayatree Series
photograph
shown at gallery
Refuge, Gayatree Series
photograph
Into The Sea
mixed-media, with caroline holmes
Make America Think Again, Oakland Feminist Rising 2017
photograph
We Pledge, Oakland Feminist Rising 2017
photograph
Zero
ink painting
Curious
photograph
Lonely
photograph
Separated
photograph
Together
photograph
Homecoming
photograph
Homecoming
photograph
The night after
photograph
Awaken
photograph
Alone
photograph
Free
photograph
The Watch I
photograph
The Watch II
photograph
The Watch IV
photograph
The Watch III
photograph
The Watch III
photograph
The Suitcase I
photograph, in collaboration with a non-profit in India
The Suitcase II
photograph, a documentary for a non-profit in India
Clockwork
photograph, a documentary for a non-profit in India
Malaria I
photograph, a documentary for a non-profit in India
Malaria II
photograph, a documentary for a non-profit in India
Under the stars
photograph
Music in stillness
photograph
*Collaborations: Mixed media in Gayatree done in collaboration with Caroline Holmes