“They never judge”

PC: Saanya Ali, 2021

When Peter Sanders was a young boy, he used to make a frame using two fingers of each hand – and he would look at the world through this frame. He realized that by doing this you can remove things out of your frame – take away the clutter – and focus on what’s right in front of you.

It was a natural thing for him to do, he tells me – and he knew then, as a young boy, that he wanted to be part of something visual. 

Peter Sanders grew up to become the world’s preeminent photographer of the Muslim world. Over the past 55 years, he has captured half a million images, documenting beauty and humanity and compassion. 

He began his career in the mid 1960s as one London’s premier rock and roll photographers. His photographs of Jimi Hendrix, Bob Dylan and the Rolling Stones are classics.

This was a springboard for his journey to India, and then Morocco, documenting different faiths; and in 1971 he obtained special permission to photograph the Hajj.

He has focused on the Islamic world of people and culture and architecture and geography. He recently finished a book based on a 50 year project called “Meetings with Mountains: Encounters with Saints and Sages of the Islamic world.

I asked Peter what is a wisdom that he took away from these meetings with sages.

He said, “they never judge people. There is no criticism when you meet them. For young people, who are often so quick to judge for example on social media, this is a really important wisdom, he said. 

They see you as a whole soul; a soul that is on a journey. And they have met you at a certain point on your journey –there’s no judgement in that – your journey continues.