Mumbai-born and Brooklyn-based photographer Manjari Sharma’s new project Darshan (spotted via Huffington Post) takes a modern approach to a timeless Hindu cultural artifact. “We may have seen paintings and sculptures used to illustrate Hindu deities all over the world,” Sharma explains. “However, it’s the use of a rarely explored medium like photography to culturally preserve the Indian heritage that lends a uniqueness to the project.” The result are large-scale productions that incorporated exhaustive research, extensive makeup and prosthetics, and a team of 35 Indian craftsmen.

Darshan will be on display at ClampArt in New York City until October 12. While you can see a few of the images here, we suggest checking out the actual exhibition, which Sharma describes as “a massive print installation in a museum that closely mimics the experience of a Hindu temple, complete with incense, lamps and invocations, accompanied by detailed texts about the mythological significance of that deity.”

Image credit: Manjari Sharma

Image credit: Manjari Sharma

Image credit: Manjari Sharma

Image credit: Manjari Sharma

Image credit: Manjari Sharma

Image credit: Manjari Sharma