Published in 2000 by DDH Foundation, Exaltation: Images of Religion and Death brings together Dutch photographer Desirée Dolron’s intensive documentation of religious faith, transcendence, and mortality. Across 120 pages, the publication gathers 50 duotones and 15 full-color photographs produced during Dolron’s extensive travels through India, Malaysia, Pakistan, the Philippines, Morocco, and Thailand.

Dolron focuses her lens on the complex threshold between the physical body and the spirit. The imagery records believers engaged in profound acts of ritual devotion, depicting both collective ceremonies and solitary trances where participants push their bodies into extreme states of devotion. Rather than exoticizing the spectacles, the photographs observe sacred rites and the proximity of death with rigorous formal balance and contemplative stillness.

For collectors of documentary and contemporary Dutch photography, Exaltation stands as a seminal entry in Dolron’s oeuvre. It captures a pivotal moment in her career, demonstrating her command of tone, light, and anthropological inquiry before her later studio portraits and digital compositions, preserving a powerful photographic study of human ritual across continents.