Yuba professor captures 'Signs of Life'

Yuba College photography professor Rick Murai opened his latest fine art photography exhibit, "Signs of Life," this week at Viewpoint Photographic Gallery in Sacramento. The exhibit includes recent images from Bhutan, Laos and Easter Island that are part of Murai's 20-year project documenting the world's sacred sites.

An artist's reception and talk is set for 5:30 p.m. Friday at the gallery.

"I welcome people to come to the exhibit and share my experiences in the world," Murai said. "And if they come to the talk, they will learn about not only the creative end of it, but also some historical perspective of the places I photographed. And also I'll share some technical trappings of the work that I do.

"That's one thing that I stress when I have an exhibition: to give a talk, not only to answer questions, but also share more in-depth experiences of the work," he added.

Many of the photographs in "Signs of Life" have earned first-place awards in the 2008, 2010 and 2011 Travel Photographer of the Year competitions in Great Britain, as well as the Jurors Award from the 2010 California State Fair.

Murai, a native of Berkeley, said he first picked up a camera when he was in high school, inspired to capture images of the impact of the Vietnam War and domestic political unrest. His work "led to other projects in the Bay Area," he said.

"I did a whole series on blue collar workers. Then I went to grad school. I had a dual major in photojournalism and in fine art, so I was going to go either way" in his career, Murai said.

"A lot of my friends I went to school with went into the newspaper business, but I ended up going into the fine arts and teaching. So the work I'm doing now reflects that documentary sort of style with a fine art bend. I combine the documentation with fine art," he said.

Murai said he loves teaching "because I can kind of live vicariously through my students. I see a lot of different kinds of work; it runs the gamut. I find it exciting to see what students do because it changes not only every semester but weekly, monthly — they kind of evolve."

Although Murai said he enjoys seeing the world through the lens of his students' work, "It's also important for me to get out and do my own work. It's good for me personally, but I think it's also good for the classroom as I bring in information and my experiences as more of a role model."

Murai said his sacred sites documentary project started in grad school and evolved from there. "I started photographing in the Bay Area: the black Pentecostal Church, and then I did the Mormon temple in Oakland. I did the Hare Krishna, and then I photographed faith healers at tent revivals," he said.

Murai said the project grew over the years to encompass a global scale, "photographing not only different religious movements, but also sacred sites and places of power. In the last 10 to 15 years, it's not only just sacred sites, like monasteries and temples — it's also places of power, like Machu Picchu and Stonehenge and Easter Island," he said.

"All photographs are documents, and I think it's important to document things, whether it's your family or your loved ones or the things around you. People come and go — people are born, people get old and people die. So it's important that we document them," Murai said.

Murai said his series of photos from Bhutan is also going to be published in the April-May issue of LensWork magazine, one of the most highly esteemed U.S. journals of photography. This will be his third appearance in LensWork.

"Signs of Life" is open noon-6 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays at Viewpoint Photographic Gallery in Sacramento and runs through March 3.

CONTACT Susan Benitez at sbenitez@appealdemocrat.com or 749-4773. Find her on Facebook at /ADFeatures or on Twitter at @adfeatures.