Ways to Shiva by Joseph M. Dye was published in 1980 by Princeton University Press in tandem with the show, “The Presence of Shiva” at The Philadelphia Museum of Art curated by Stella Kramrisch. The exhibition traveled to the Kimbell Art Museum, The Seattle Art Museum, and The Los Angeles Museum of Art.
Kit’s photos from his travels through India at age 20 during his junior year abroad at Benares Hindu University proudly grace the cover and are featured throughout the book, including alongside one of his favorite photographers Henri Cartier-Bresson.
Off and on, Kit spent about a year traveling around Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and the border towns of Mexico, to shoot a book about roughnecks, who are laborers in the oilfield. Roughnecks, Oil Patch U.S.A., was published in 1985.
Like cowboys, frontiersmen, and gold rushers, roughnecks are an American archetype. They are free and brave. They practice all the vices admired by American manhood and none of the virtues we dislike. Roughnecks are boisterous. They roughhouse. They live with danger and move with gumption. A woman in Louisiana said, “I can pick out a roughneck just walking down the street ‘cause they always look so ready.”
One roughneck said, “Just tell them people that they’re driving around or sitting someplace warm to think of us working hard somewhere at the other end of the pipeline.”
“Kit Kittle has captured the lusty lives of those men appropriately called Roughnecks with camera, tape recorder, and typewriter he has offered indelible portraits.” - Studs Terkel
Starting in 1983, Kit Kittle photographed the drag queen scene in the West Village on Halloween. The get-ups and gags happening on the sidewalk became its own unique brand of street theatre. This was an era of excitement and hilarity that was so full of life.
The book these photographs were shot for was put aside as the onslaught of AIDS hit the community. History has cast a long shadow over the eighties, but the drag queens look as fabulous as ever.
While studying at Benares University in India, an interest in Buddhism led Kit to study Sanskrit and philosophy. This experience changed the way he saw the world.
This collection of photos creates a space for thoughts about what this figure means. The Buddha can be seen less as a religious figure and more as a symbol of quiet and steadfast effort.